The  Religion  of  Jesus 


ALBERT  G.  LAWSON 


£ibrar^  of  l:he  theological  ^eminar^ 

PRINCETON  .  NEW  JERSEY 

FROM  THE  LIBRARY  OF 
ROBERT  ELLIOTT  SPEER 


L 


BR  121  .L38  1920 
Lawson,  Albert  G.  1842- 
The  religion  of  Jesus 


iiy^t 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


THE 
RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


By 
ALBERT  G.  LAWSON 


PHILADELPHIA 


THE    JUDSON     PRESS 


BOSTON 


CHICAGO  ST.  LOUIS  LOS  AKGELES 

KANSAS  CITY  SEATTLE  TORONTO 


Copyright,  1920,  by 
GILBERT  N.  BRINK.  Secretary 


Published  December,  1920 


PREFACE 

Presented  on  various  occasions  before  Theological 
Seminaries  and  Ministers'  Conferences,  these  papers 
are  now  put  in  permanent  form  in  response  to  re- 
peated  requests. 

Published  as  they  are  spoken,  they  include  some 
repetitions.  That  they  may  be  of  genuine  benefit 
to  students  of  the  religion  of  Jesus  is  the  earnest 
hope  of  the  writer. 


INTRODUCTION 


It  was  my  privilege  to  hear  two  of  the  addresses 
pubHshed  in  this  volume.  The  personality  of  the 
speaker  added  charm  to  the  word  spoken,  and  the 
charm  has  not  been  lost  in  the  word  printed. 

"  The  Religion  of  Jesus  "  is  fitly  the  first  of  the 
series.  Without  it  the  other  addresses  could  not 
have  been  conceived.  The  author  treats  the  religion 
of  Jesus  descriptively,  rather  than  historically  and 
philosophically.  He  portrays  graphically  the  inner 
experiences  of  Jesus  Qirist  disclosed  in  the  New 
Testament.  The  portrayal  is  in  the  form  of  medita- 
tion and  prayer  rather  than  of  essay  and  exhorta- 
tion. The  impression  upon  the  reader  is  to  make 
him  desire  the  author's  love  for  Christ  and  his 
gospel.  Better  Christians,  better  teachers,  better 
preachers  must  be  the  fruitage  of  these  addresses. 
All  who  heard  these  delivered,  and  all  who  read 
them,  will  be  grateful  to  others  who  desired  the 
publication  for  wide  circulation. 

Milton  G.  Evans. 

Crozer  Theological  Seminary,  Chester,  Pa. 
December  1,  1920. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  The  Religion  of  Jesus 1 

II.  Disciples  and  Apostles 23 

III.  A  Completed  Ministry 43 

IV.  Divine  Methods  in  Human  Redemption  67 


y 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


THIS  is  the  day  of  inquiry.  We  dig  up  creeds 
to  reach  the  sources  of  dogma,  biting  the  thumb 
of  authority  as  we  dig.  Can  the  real,  the  true,  be 
found  ? 

Two  problems  face  us :  Given  a  host  of  spiritual 
facts  and  truths  far  above  our  senses,  and  given  a 
spirit  at  zero,  now  bring  this  spiritual  world  within 
the  rim  of  my  human  spirit;  that  is,  make  the  true 
about  and  above  me  truth  and  experience  in  me. 
Again,  a  young  Jew,  a  worker  in  wood,  a  man  of 
one  book,  the  Hebrew  writings,  creates  a  body  of 
religious  truth  assailed  for  centuries  by  fierce  criti- 
cism which  today,  more  clearly  than  ever,  is  show- 
ing itself  to  be  the  one  universal  religion.  How 
did  he  get  his  religion?  Who  gave  him  his  au- 
thority?   What  was  his  own  faith? 

Man,  "  incurably  religious,"  is  born  to  worship  as 
the  sparks  fly  upward ;  Jesus,  the  religious  man,  is 
the  center  of  human  history;  religion  is  a  life  in 
right  relation  with  God.  In  this  right  relation  Jesus 
lives  from  Nazareth  to  Olivet,  his  great  gift  his  life, 
its  inner  fountain  his  own  religious  experience.  For 
self-conscious  personality  he  is  Master ;  as  sure  of 
his  own  unity  as  of  the  unity  of  God,  his  religion 
is  his  own,  no  man  is  echoed  or  held  for  a  word. 

[3] 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


The  boy,  father  to  the  man,  with  reHgious  fervor 
says,  "  I  must  be  in  my  Father's  house  " ;  the  man 
with  mature  purpose,  in  his  baptism,  says,  ''  Thus 
it  becomes  us  to  fulfil  all  righteousness."  Religion 
his  life-blood,  goodness  clothes  him  as  naturally  as 
his  seamless  coat.  To  pray,  to  eat,  to  do  good,  to 
undo  evil  natural  for  each  act  is  the  one  thing  to 
do.  "  Would  ye  also  go  away  ?  "  to  the  Twelve ; 
*'  Could  ye  not  watch  with  me  one  hour  ?  "  when 
the  three  lay  in  stupor  as  he  lay  in  agony,  are  cries 
of  deep  human  need.  When  legalism  and  super- 
stition bind  Israel  in  a  worse  than  Roman  bondage, 
with  faith  as  clear  as  a  child's  he  fasts,  prays,  wor- 
ships, visits  the  sick,  eats  with  rich  or  poor,  preaches, 
teaches,  and  works  in  the  simplest  way  possible. 
Natural  and  spiritual  never  separate  entities  to  him, 
common  things  open  heaven's  door,  the  familiar  is 
the  divine,  the  ordinary  the  act  of  God  in  his  re- 
ligion. To  be  unnatural,  unreal,  is  impossible  with 
him ;  hence  when  scholars  say,  "  The  divine  comedy 
soon  passes  into  terrible  tragedy,"  or  of  Tuesday, 
in  Passion  Week,  ''  The  one  calm  and  undisturbed 
actor  among  all  who  took  part  in  the  tragic  doings 
of  that  day,"  they  drag  him  down  to  the  level  of 
men  who  make  believe  they  are  what  they  know 
they  are  not.  Jesus  marvels,  weeps,  is  surprised, 
begs  human  sympathy,  and  one  word  explains  it 
all — it  is  genuine.  No  scorn  equals  his  scorn  for 
the  hypocrite.  "  Do  the  truth,"  says  John,  who  saw 
Jesus  live  the  truth  among  men.     As  faith's  leader 


[4 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


he  believes,  as  faith's  perfecter  he  perfects  himself. 
Hence  '*  we  may  safely  argue  from  his  life  to  his 
faith,"  for  his  religion  is  himself.  When  he  can  do 
no  mighty  work  he  "  marvels,"  says  frankly,  "  I  do 
not  know,"  "  It  is  not  for  me  to  give,"  and  speaks 
truth. 

"  Unite  my  heart  to  fear  thy  name,"  "  We  know 
not  how  to  pray  as  we  ought,"  are  not  applied  to 
him;  but  when  soul  agony  forces  the  cry,  ''What 
shall  I  say  ?  "  the  words  of  sinful  desire  that  tempt 
him,  which  he  dare  not  speak,  John  writes  down. 
The  kingdom  of  evil  being  as  real  to  him  as  the 
kingdom  of  God,  temptation  is  more  real  and  a 
more  fiery  trial  than  to  us. 

His  religion  is  not  theory  but  practice,  not  the- 
ology but  truth,  and  truth  not  in  ideas  and  ideals 
so  much  as  in  a  helpful,  matter-of-fact  life.  With 
him  who  went  about  doing  good,  ethics  and  re- 
ligion are  one,  his  service  love  and  his  love  service, 
and  ethical  conduct  the  fruit  of  life,  not  life  the 
fruit  of  ethical  conduct.  His  works,  notably  those 
for  the  sinful,  are  open  signs  of  soul  throbs.  To 
get  best  results  we  fix  time,  place,  form,  and  often 
divorce  religion  from  the  ordinary;  but  he  weds  it 
to  the  common  life,  hence  his  religion,  salt  and  light 
for  the  daily  task,  fits  any  time  or  place.  With 
Matthew  at  the  customs  desk  or  with  a  widow  at  a 
funeral,  with  fishermen  mending  their  nets  or  with 
a  ruler  praying  for  his  child,  with  beggars  at  the 
roadside,  with  guests  at  a  wedding  or  at  the  tables 


[5] 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


of  the  rich,  his  rehgion  is  a  cup  of  blessing.  Who 
can  imagine  contact  with  men  where  it  would  fail 
to  do  good  ?    Is  there  a  truer  test  for  religion  ? 

His  religion  is  thorough !  It  reaches  down  to 
the  minute  deeds  of  a  single  hour,  and  dying  he 
leaves  nothing  unfinished.  His  whole  life,  as  his 
baptism,  fulfils  all  righteousness,  and  going  to  the 
Father  his  righteousness  becomes  the  Spirit's  sword. 
When  God's  love  and  man's  sin  converging  bind 
him  to  the  cross,  he  manifests  the  paradox  of 
plenty,  for  as  the  dying  grain  brings  greater 
harvest  his  lifting-up  draws  all  men  to  himself. 
''  The  permission  of  sin  has  cost  God  more  than  it 
has  cost  man,"  says  Doctor  Shedd  in  his  rugged 
theology,  and  he  is  right.  That  the  innocent  must 
suffer  with  the  guilty,  and  more  than  the  guilty, 
and  often,  in  vicarious  love,  must  suffer  for  the 
guilty,  a  great  law  of  the  universe,  is  the  principle 
of  the  Cross.  Phillips  Brooks  says,  "  There  is  no 
principle  involved  in  the  atonement  which  is  not 
involved  in  the  most  sacred  relations  between  man 
and  man,"  but  Jesus  alone  fulfils  this  high  law  of 
heaven  and  earth.  When  he  dies  the  Roman  yoke 
and  the  slave-chain  still  gall  men,  but  the  force  that 
breaks  both  is  his  religion.  ''  Unto  Caesar  his  things, 
and  unto  God  the  things  of  God."  Disciples  remain 
true  to  that  word,  and  Gibbon  writes  on  the  decline 
and  fall  of  Rome,  Greece  arises  '*  with  the  New 
Testament  in  her  hand,"  and  Lincoln  sets  free  mil- 
lions of  slaves. 


[6] 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


"  Man  of  sorrows  "  is  not  the  best  title  for  him 
whose  first  glory  sign  is  at  a  wedding,  whose  re- 
ligion is  joy — a  note  not  struck  as  it  ought  to  be — 
whose  mind,  stayed  on  God,  is  kept  "  in  perfect 
peace,"  for  perfect  peace  is  unruffled  content,  un- 
speakable joy,  one  and  the  same  at  heart.  His 
priestly  prayer  is  "  that  they  may  have  my  joy  made 
full  in  themselves."  Who  lives  by  every  word  of 
God,  his  meat  to  do  the  will  of  God,  his  passion  for 
God  equaled  only  by  his  joy  in  God,  who  lives  to 
bring  God  to  men  and  men  to  God,  must  have  full 
joy.  Jesus  is  our  joy-bringer!  Christianity's 
stream  of  song  cannot  rise  above  its  source;  its 
springs  are  in  him.  "  Add  "  to  your  faith  is  "  choir 
on,"  a  musical  term,  for  his  religion,  rich  with  the 
joy  of  a  redeeming  purpose,  creates  our  oratorios 
and  so  fills  the  soul  that  every  new  sacrifice  is  a 
new  joy.  In  the  olden  time  "  when  the  burnt  of- 
fering began,  the  song  of  Jehovah  began  also  and 
the  trumpets."  In  the  fulness  of  time,  in  evil's 
dread  hour,  Jesus,  choirmaster  in  that  upper  room, 
sings  on  his  way  to  the  cross ;  facing  death,  he  gives 
to  his  little  flock  his  own  peace,  and  blends  into 
one  the  opposite  elements  of  glory  and  shame. 

How  radical  his  religion!  With  one  God  and 
one  temple  Israel  had  kept  the  purest  faith,  yet  now 
religion  oscillates  between  Pharisees  praying  at 
street  corners  and  hermits  seeking  the  wilderness; 
legalism  and  officialism  stifle  moraHty  but  load 
heavy  burdens  and  curses  on  the  poor;  the  house 


[7] 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


of  prayer  is  a  den  of  thieves,  and  the  religious 
leaders  are  whited  sepulchers.  With  what  sharp 
contrast  Jesus  shows  mercy  to  the  sinful,  counts 
such  happy  as  are  poor  in  spirit,  the  meek,  and 
they  that  hunger  after  righteousness,  shares  with 
publicans  and  sinners  his  food,  calls  such  to  be 
his  disciples,  and  lays  chief  stress  on  motive  and 
spirit!  Independent  of  men  and  of  institutions, 
he  rends  the  tangled  mesh  of  Talmudic  tradition 
more  swiftly  than  Samson  broke  his  fetters.  God- 
given  institutions  are  less  than  the  men  to  whom  he 
gives  them ;  ceasing  to  bring  good  to  men  and  men 
to  God,  he  breaks  them  as  Hezekiah  broke  Moses' 
brazen  serpent.  Lord  of  the  Sabbath,  greater  than 
the  temple,  above  all  priests  or  prophets,  he  is  not 
self-dependent  or  self-satisfied  as  we  use  the  terms. 
He,  its  spring  and  supply,  shares  the  new  life  with 
every  citizen  of  the  kingdom. 

"  With  the  people  and  for  the  people  "  mirrors 
his  entire  course.  As  they  are  being  baptized  he 
comes  also :  John  to  the  wilderness,  but  Jesus  to  the 
city,  and  when,  according  to  his  custom,  he  wor- 
ships with  the  common  people,  our  spiritual  king 
wears  no  special  dress.  He  chooses  twelve  plain 
men  to  be  with  him  for  prayer  and  work,  calls  them 
brethren,  folds  them  in  the  shrine  of  heart  con- 
fidence, fills  them  with  his  spirit,  and  lifts  them  out 
of  provincial  narrowness  into  world-wide  vision  and 
service. 

His  social  worship  exalts  three  principles:  God 


[8] 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


has  first  right  to  all  we  are,  gives  us  first  right  to 
all  he  is,  and  his  children  must  bless  those  who  have 
least,  for  he  gives  most  to  those  who  have  most 
need.  Jesus  thinks  in  the  concrete:  the  least  truth 
is  large  that  affects  men — not  goodness  but  the 
good  man,  not  poverty  but  the  poor  man,  not  evil 
but  the  evil-doer  moves  him.  Great  moral  leaders 
are  not  always  what  Jesus  always  was^ — gentle  and 
tender.  The  heat  of  his  love  melts  caste  to  whom 
a  blind  beggar's  need  is  broad  enough  to  show 
God's  glory.  "  To  the  poor  the  gospel,"  spoken 
twice,  he  lives,  in  the  open,  every  day.  His  highest 
work  begins  the  lowest  down,  in  foundations  laid 
among  the  lowly,  far  and  away  beneath  the  level 
of  the  so-called  best  society.  "  The  minor  moral 
needs  meet  in  him,"  for  nothing  is  too  small  to  be 
used  in  his  service  whose  religion  is  so  simple  that 
plain  men  may  follow. 

Psychology  and  philosophy  today  urge  the  free- 
dom of  the  moral  agent  and  the  immortality  of  the 
moral  person — that  the  individual  must  have  a 
knowledge  of  himself  as  a  spiritual  personality,  that 
he  must  gain  control  of  himself  as  a  unit  in  society, 
and  then  give  himself  back  as  an  organic  part  of 
the  world's  life,  since  character  is  the  sum  of  our 
choices;  but  all  this  is  written  large  in  Jesus'  re- 
ligion. With  intellect,  emotions,  and  will  the  high- 
est known,  never  moving  out  of  harmony  and  al- 
ways working  at  the  flood,  radical  in  speech  but 
conservative  in  action,  his  religion  shows  limitless 


[9] 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


might  kept  in  perfect  control  and  used  only  for  un- 
selfish ends.  Mental  and  moral  qualities  balance 
each  other;  man's  strength  and  courage  with 
woman's  purity  and  tenderness  blend  into  unity  in 
him.  He  calls  himself  "  meek  and  lowly  " — dis- 
credited virtues — never  brave  or  manly,  as  we  call 
him,  yet  he  inspires  the  highest  courage  and  man- 
hood. The  great  crystal  palace  of  his  gifts  and 
powers  is  filled  with  harmony. 

Prayer  is  a  real  test  of  the  religious  life.  Who 
spends  time  communing  with  God  saves  time  and 
himself;  rich  and  poor,  strong  and  weak  meet  to- 
gether to  grow  in  grace  in  "  the  democracy  of 
prayer."  Here  Jesus  is  supreme!  Work  and  rest, 
joy  and  trial,  the  grind  of  daily  toil,  the  growth  of 
enmity,  and  all  his  experiences  are  sweetened  with 
prayer.  Three  times  he  hears  his  Father  speak, 
each  linked  with  prayer  as  are  two  other  signs  of 
the  Father's  favor.  To  know  more  of  ourselves 
and  not  to  know  more  of  God  brings  fear  and 
failure.  We  know  the  need  of  prayer;  he  knew 
also  its  luxury.  The  floodtide  of  popularity  and  the 
first  of  the  ebb  is  sanctified  by  a  night  of  prayer, 
and  in  that  night  he  is  transfigured. 

Recall  the  hues  traced :  Jesus'  religion  is  as  natu- 
ral as  it  is  real,  as  practical  as  it  is  intense,  as  sim- 
ple as  it  is  supreme,  as  radical  as  it  is  strong,  as 
self-sacrificing  as  it  is  holy,  and  as  full  of  joy  as 
it  is  of  service;  yet  to  show  what  it  is  does  not 
explain  how  it  is.     Mystery  will  always  surround 


[10 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


Jesus'  person  and  work,  for  his  religion  "  essentially 
intelligible  in  its  manifest  simplicity  is  yet  essentially 
unfathomable  in  its  depth  of  meaning."  We  should 
be  Christ-centered ;  true,  but  where  was  Christ  cen- 
tered? Can  we  learn  the  hidings  of  his  power? 
Religious  nature  alone  will  not  grow  religious  char- 
acter ;  scribes  and  Pharisees  with  the  nature  did  not 
grow  the  character.  Men  may  have  a  religion  of 
form,  of  sentiment,  of  beauty,  like  Herod,  who 
heard  John  gladly  and  did  many  things  but  took 
off  John's  head  at  the  whim  of  a  dancing-girl.  Im- 
pulse, reason,  art,  esthetics  are  not  good  corner- 
stones for  religion. 

Three  forces  shape  his  religion :  the  Father,  the 
Spirit,  the  Scriptures.  Jesus  loves  the  Old  Testa- 
ment ;  his  delight  in  the  law  of  Jehovah  is  great ;  he 
saturates  his  mind  with  its  thought,  wields  it  as 
his  sword  in  temptation,  and  through  his  example 
leads  men  to  live  not  by  bread  alone  but  by  every 
word  of  God.  The  Spirit  is  the  one  living  bond 
between  the  Father  and  himself.  The  Spirit  has 
everything  in  him,  hence  the  prince  of  this  world 
has  nothing.  Born  of  the  Spirit,  led  of  the  Spirit, 
filled  with  the  Spirit,  his  works  credited  to  the 
Spirit,  he  makes  the  Spirit  the  sole  executor  of  his 
last  will  and  testament.  Horizontal  religions  with 
creeds  and  councils  for  support  dissolve  and  die,  but 
his  vertical  religion,  born  from  above,  lives  and  tri- 
umphs forever.  Fruit  is  the  high  court  of  appeal 
for  life,  but  he  perfects  even  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit. 


[11] 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


The  Scriptures,  the  Spirit,  the  Father — but  the 
greatest  of  these  is  the  Father.  To  reveal  God,  first 
and  last  with  him,  at  the  center  of  his  being,  is  the 
completest  self-surrender.  Hence  his  word,  '*  If 
any  man  would  come  after  me,  let  him  deny  him- 
self," teaches  vastly  more  than  self-denial.  The 
order,  first  entire  and  unconditional  surrender,  then 
take  up  the  cross  in  active  service,  and  then  follow 
him  in  sanctification,  is  illustrated  in  his  word  to 
the  young  ruler,  ''  Sell  everything,  give  to  the  poor, 
and  then  follow  me."  To  have  his  religion  we  must 
have  his  principles. 

An  only  son  should  show  the  likeness  of  his 
father.  "  He  that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the 
Father,"  spoken  first,  not  to  Philip  in  the  upper 
room,  but  on  the  highway  at  the  height  of  the  feast, 
to  the  crowd  thronging  to  the  temple,  is  not  for 
dogma  but  an  outburst  of  rich  experience.  His  eye 
single,  his  heart  pure,  he  sees  God  face  to  face; 
all  he  is  and  all  he  does  is  born  of  what  God  is 
and  does.  "  The  Father  worketh  and  I  work,"  "  My 
meat  is  to  do  his  will " — such  obedience  rests  on 
perfect  trust  and  love.  "  Not  my  will  but  thine  " 
is  the  word  of  living  unity  and  communion. 

Communion  with  God  does  not  begin  at  his  bap- 
tism. In  the  eighteen  silent  years  he  finds  himself 
and  God  also.  The  lad's  word,  "  My  Father," 
thought  through,  felt  through,  willed  through,  be- 
comes part  of  his  being.  First  things  always  first, 
on  the  Godward  side  of  every  question,  some  solved 


12 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 

later,  so  quickly  thought  out  in  those  earlier  days, 
all  he  knows  and  all  he  is  he  fuses  into  one  self- 
sacrificing  purpose.  "  To  seek  and  to  save  the  lost," 
"  to  do  the  will  of  God,"  "  to  bear  witness  to  the 
truth,"  are  one,  not  many,  and  that  one  is  to  make 
his  Father  known.  Like  the  sun  in  its  strength,  this 
dominant  purpose  shines  forth,  and  he  measures  all 
things  by  it,  for  in  heaven,  as  on  earth,  a  noble  life 
is  the  fruit  of  a  noble  ideal.  The  higher  moral 
quality  is  not  self-reliance  but  its  opposite — faith, 
the  trusting  implicitly    in  another. 

**  Father  "  is  the  one  name  spoken  when  personal 
relations  are  concerned;  in  one  record  of  three 
verses  he  says  "  Father  "  five  times.  "  The  Father 
is  with  me,"  "  I  in  him  and  he  in  me,"  *'  I  and  my 
Father  are  one,"  are  not  for  theological  hair-split- 
ting but  the  every-day  joyous  experiences  of  a  soul 
rich  toward  God.  Sure  of  his  abode  in  the  bosom 
of  the  Father  when  he  says,  "  No  one  cometh  to 
the  Father  but  by  me,"  his  emphasis  is  on  one 
word;  men  without  knowing  Jesus  find  God  in 
nature,  music,  science,  but  no  one  comes  to  the 
Father  without  Jesus.  Nicodemus  and  Cornelius 
know  God  but  not  the  Father  until  Jesus  is  known. 
God  is  interpreted  by  fatherhood,  but  fatherhood 
is  not  fully  known  until  the  Son  is  bom.  The 
thought  of  God  in  those  oft-used  words,  "  My 
Father,"  ruled  every  moment  of  his  ministry. 

His  religion  may  be  shown  in  three  words, 
"  vision,"  "  passion,"  "  action."    He  goes  about  do- 

[13  1 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


ing  good  in  our  visible  world,  but  he  lives  and 
moves  and  has  his  being  in  the  invisible  world,  for 
gravitation  draws  him  up.  He  is  not  at  his  baptism 
''  a  man  catching  a  glimpse  of  a  divine  meaning 
half  revealed,  half  concealed,  but  rather  a  human 
spirit  at  whose  very  center  God  creatively  awakens 
a  new  consciousness."  Henceforth  he  looks  into  the 
face  of  the  Father  with  unclouded  vision  and  walks 
with  him  in  soulful  fellowship.  "  I  know  him,  be- 
cause I  am  from  him,  and  he  sent  me,"  "  No  one 
knoweth  the  Son  but  the  Father,"  ''  I  am  not  alone, 
the  Father  is  with  me,"  "  I  do  always  those  things 
which  please  him,"  sweet  experiences  of  an  ingenu- 
ous spirit  conscious  that  nothing  can  separate  him 
from  his  Father's  love,  flower  forth  in  that  high 
desire,  "  Father,  glorify  thou  me  with  thine  own 
self,  with  the  glory  which  I  had  with  thee  before 
the  world  was." 

A  king  without  regalia, 
A  god  without  the  thunder 

Ay  a  creator  rent  asunder 
From  his  first  glory  and  cast  away 
On  his  own  world. 

Unhindered  vision  of  God,  unfailing  love  for  man, 
and  unceasing  fidelity  to  both  give  clear  views, 
purest  character,  dauntless  courage,  and  eternal 
fruitage.  The  burden-bearing  love  of  God  for  the 
lost  burns  in  him  like  an  altar-fire  that  cannot  go 


[14] 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


out.  To  lead  a  sinful  woman  to  his  Father  is  more 
than  to  eat  with  his  own  band.  Nor  agony  nor 
enmity  could  throw  a  shadow  of  doubt  on  the  dial 
of  his  hope.  *'  Himself  from  God  he  could  not 
free."  The  Father's  smile  fails  him  only  in  one 
short  hour,  but  his  vision  of  the  Father  never  fails, 
nor  fades  into  the  light  of  common  day. 

Sharer  with  God  and  man,  the  true  daysman  tests 
his  love  to  God  by  his  love  to  man,  how  near  he  is 
to  God  by  his  nearness  to  man,  and  how  much  God 
is  in  him  by  the  power  for  good  he  brings  into  the 
world.  "  A  year  of  obscurity,  a  year  of  public 
favor,  a  year  of  opposition,  and  in  one  day  death," 
is  the  human  record  of  a  ministry  which,  as  our  true 
tree  of  life,  brings  forth  fruit  every  day.  No  re- 
specter of  persons  that  he  may  be  brother  to  every 
man,  poor  yet  making  many  rich,  he 

Lived  with  God  in  such  untroubled  love 
And  clear  confiding,  as  a  child  on  whom 
The  Father's  face  had  never  yet  but  smiled ; 
And  with  men  even,  in  such  harmony 
Of  brotherhood,  that  whatsoever  spark 
Of  pure  and  true  in  any  human  heart 
Flickered  and  lived,  it  burned  itself  toward 
Him. 

His  religion  shows  the  ideal  religious  life,  since 
to  live  as  he  lived  and  to  love  as  he  loved  is  the 
highest  life  possible  on  the  floor  of  earth.  "  When 
humanity,  like  fruit  too  heavy  for  the  stalk  it  hangs 
on,  is  dragged  to  the  dust  by  its  own  weight,"  Jesus 

r  15  1 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


comes  to  lift  man  up  again  to  God.  The  most  per- 
fect man  known  to  men  lives  to  serve,  not  to  be 
served.  "  He  could  do  justice  to  men  because  he 
loved  them  so."  When  he  knows  his  hour  is  come 
to  take  a  towel  and  gird  himself  and  wash  his  dis- 
ciples' feet,  from  Peter  to  Judas,  he  puts  into  the 
concrete  the  whole  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  "  Who 
through  the  eternal  Spirit  offered  himself  without 
blemish  unto  God  "  seems  to  sum  up  all  his  life  in 
one  religious  act.  "  In  the  van  of  twenty  centuries, 
with  unwearied  feet  he  goes  about  today  doing 
good." 

The  worth  of  his  religion  is  above  price.  He 
comes  from  God,  but  must  know  release  from  evil, 
communion  with  God,  and  devotion  to  his  will  by 
human  experience.  What  he  thus  knows — and 
there  were  crises  in  his  experience  who  grew  in 
grace,  who  learned  obedience,  who  was  made  per- 
fect by  sufferings,  who  says  the  Father  has  yet 
greater  things  to  show  me — ^what  he  thinks  and 
speaks,  what  he  does  and  is — that  is  the  core  of 
Christianity.  If  his  life  is  history's  holy  of  holies, 
his  religion  is  the  Shekinah  glory  in  that  holy  of 
holies.  No  religious  leader  ever  taught  or  lived  so 
little  that  was  transient  and  "  so  much  that  was  time- 
less and  eternal,"  hence  "  the  literature  of  the  world 
holds  no  doctrine  so  limited  in  bulk,  so  limitless  in 
meaning  and  service  as  the  gospel  record  of  Jesus." 

Two  great  notes  arise  out  of  his  experience — 
authority  and  completeness.     His  a  religion  of  cer- 


[16 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 

tainties,  he  makes  known  eternal  realities:  he  has 
no  doubt  as  to  himself  or  the  Father  or  the  triumph 
of  his  gospel.  He  knows  hatred  will  assail  his  truth, 
but  he  also  knows  nothing  can  arrest  the  moral  force 
he  sets  free ;  the  gates  of  hell  cannot  prevail  against 
it.  Sure  of  what  lives  beyond,  he  says,  "  It  is  for  you 
I  go  and  for  you  I  will  come  again."  That  one  deed 
will  be  told  to  the  end  of  the  age  wherever  the  gospel 
goes.  The  will  of  God  is  done  in  him  as  it  is  done 
in  heaven,  hence  his  religion,  practical  and  perma- 
nent, is  the  absolute  and  final  religion,  for  it  makes 
known  that  which  is.  The  life  of  God  present  in 
him  is  reproduced  in  us ;  the  love  of  God  abiding  in 
him  is  awakened  and  made  effective  in  us.  It  is  the 
right  life,  for  the  all-righteousness  is  lived  in  the 
character  that  men  ought  to  bear.  It  is  the  power 
of  God  unto  salvation,  for  it  actually  saves  men, 
makes  them  whole,  brings  to  pass  what  ought  to  be, 
since  it  is  not  something  done  for  us  so  much  as 
something  done  in  us  that  saves. ^  He  unlocks  the 
infinite  fulness  of  God  and  exalts  the  infinite 
capacities  of  man.  The  source  of  deathless  power 
in  him,  his  own  religious  experience  reveals  a  whole 
being  and  a  whole  life  at  one  with  the  soul's  highest 
vision  of  God. 

Whatever  was  "  emptied  "  when  the  Word  be- 
came flesh,  the  elements  of  constitution  common  to 
God  and  man  were  kept,  for  Jesus  has  the  ideal 
potentiality  set  up  in  the  original  constitution.     He 

*  Abridged  from  William   Newton  Clarke. 

[171 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


taught  Nicodemus  heavenly  things.  The  ascent  of 
man  by  the  descent  of  the  Son  of  Man  begins  by 
the  inflow  of  Hfe  from  above,  and  at  its  height  men 
become  partakers  of  the  divine  nature.  Since  good- 
ness and  virtue  and  moral  standards  are  one  to  God 
and  the  normal  man,  good  and  evil  the  same  to  both, 
religion  is  not  only  possible  but  fundamental.  If 
good  and  evil  were  one  to  man  and  another  to  God, 
we  could  have  no  certainty  in  morals  and  there 
could  be  no  religion.  The  real  character  of  God 
and  the  right  character  of  man  shown  in  one  per- 
son fix  the  unity  of  the  moral  standards  in  both,  and 
Jesus  is  the  final  proof  of  their  oneness  for  time  and 
eternity.  Jesus  does  not  move  among  men  as  an 
automaton ;  it  is  not  from  device  or  contrivance  that 
he  lives  and  works,  but  from  the  inner  necessities 
of  his  being.  He  is  a  giver  and  a  lover  from  the 
beginning,  for  this  is  God's  way  to  man  and  man's 
way  to  God,  and  the  two  facts,  the  height  of  the 
infinite  God  above  the  finite  man  and  the  image  of 
the  infinite  Father  in  the  finite  Son,  make  a  re- 
ligious life  the  most  glorious  life  possible.  He  who 
coined  the  terms  "  The  Galilean  vagabond "  and 
"  The  ugly  little  Jew,"  a  thinking  man  is  capable 
also  of  saying  "  My  Lord  and  my  God,"  "  For  me 
to  live  is  Christ."' 

To  assail  the  authority  of  Jesus  is  to  sow  anarchy ; 
sown  here,  it  will  waft  its  seeds  everywhere,  and 
that  day  will  return,  once  tried  in  Israel,  when 
"  every  man  did  that  which  was  right  in  his  own 

[18] 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


eyes,"  though  history  does  not  commend  the  fruit 
very  highly.  He  who  has  nothing  above  his  own 
inner  Hght  stands  at  the  level  of  Nicodemus ;  to  him 
Jesus  is  merely  a  teacher  sent  from  God.  Peter 
knows  more  who  says,  *'  We  have  believed  and  know 
that  thou  art  the  Holy  One  of  God."  John  knows 
more  who  says,  "  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of 
God,  and  believing  ye  may  have  life  in  his  name," 
for  Jesus  does  not  give  rules  of  life  but  life  itself. 
Unto  the  end  of  the  ages  will  men  say,  "  In  him  is 
life,  and  the  life  is  the  light  of  the  world." 

Jesus  knew  himself  to  be  the  one  interpreter  of 
God,  the  one  mediator  between  God  and  men,  and 
we  are  to  live  as  he  lived.  Truth  revealed  to  him 
takes  full  possession  and  is  so  wrought  into  his 
own  being  that  he  says,  "  I  am  the  truth,  I  am  the 
life,"  and  higher  sayings  even  he  does  not  utter. 

Did  Jesus  have  two  standards  of  religion,  one  for 
himself  and  another  for  us  ?  No,  God  cannot  have 
two  standards.  Yet  he  does  not  confess  sin,  make 
quest  for  salvation,  or  pray  for  pardon.  That  re- 
ligion is  not  a  stop-gap  for  guilt,  evoked  because  sin 
came  into  the  world,  is  one  of  the  chief  signs  in 
his  religion.  Personal  sin  is  not  necessary  to  the 
best  knowledge  of  God  or  to  the  best  manhood,  for 
who  knew  God  as  he  knew  him  ?  Religion  is  in  the 
nature  of  things,  its  deepest  cause  in  the  nature  of 
God,  and  its  deepest  need  in  the  nature  of  man. 
The  more  normal  we  are  the  more  Christian  we 
shall  be,  is  the  showing  of  his  life.     He  who  lives 


[19 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


sinless  among  the  sinful  never  speculates  about  sin, 
has  clearest  concepts  of  it,  and  most  severely  con- 
demns it,  the  seventh  chapter  of  Romans  being  in- 
conceivable in  his  experience;  yet  sin  is  to  no  one 
so  actual  and  awful  a  fact  as  to  him  who  gave  his 
life  to  destroy  it. 

We  sin  and  fall  short  of  the  glory  of  God,  he 
ceases  not  to  keep  that  glory ;  we  know  more  than 
we  practise,  he  practises  all  he  knows,  the  one  being 
who  lives  abreast  of  his  ideals.  The  first  duty  of 
those  who  turn  away  is  to  return  to  God.  He  who 
omits  nothing  he  should  do  and  does  nothing  he 
should  not  do — how  can  he  turn  ?  Heaven  is  always 
present,  not  future,  nearer  than  Bethany  to  him. 
When  in  his  own  synagogue  of  Nazareth  his  service 
is  lost  in  a  dead  sea  of  ingratitude,  he  looks  from 
without  to  the  inner  light  of  an  approving  con- 
science. "  He  speaks  always  from  within,"  yet  no 
word  spoken  of  his  life  is  so  fruitful  as  the  life 
itself,  and  his  own  experience  is  his  great  gift. 
Virtue  is  always  going  forth  from  him.  His  heart 
is  the  home  of  the  perfect  and  the  permanent,  his 
broken  heart  the  fountain  of  sin  and  uncleanness. 
His  religion  is  not  because  he  is  the  Messiah — he 
is  the  Messiah  because  his  life  of  right  relation  with 
God  from  first  to  last  is  without  flaw.  At  his  birth, 
religion  was  another  name  for  fears  and  blood  and 
power,  for  priesthood  and  superstition.  God  was  a 
name  to  excite  dread.  He  was  an  absentee  God. 
At  his  death,  truth  and  love,  joy  and  peace  meet  to- 


20] 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


gether.  God  is  in  all  things.  Henceforth,  God 
lives  with  men;  in  the  lowliest  as  in  the  highest 
human  experiences  and  conditions  God  is  always 
present.  Religion  cannot  again  be  chiefly  a  matter 
of  relation  to  law  or  race  or  government ;  it  is  essen- 
tially a  relation  of  persons.  He  suffered,  the  just 
for  the  unjust,  that  he  might  bring  us  to  God.  Per- 
sonal faith  in  a  personal  God  wrought  out  in  heart 
experience  is  our  sheet-anchor. 

His  religion  in  its  deepest  vision  of  truth  and  its 
most  spiritual  methods  is  our  goal.  The  upward 
calling  of  God  is  in  Christ  Jesus.  Christ  formed  in 
us,  his  thought,  his  will,  his  spirit  living  in  us  is  our 
hope  of  glory.  As  the  image  thus  formed  shines 
through  the  man  like  light  through  glass,  so  he, 
the  sun  of  righteousness,  transmits  his  light  down- 
ward through  the  centuries  and  outward  to  the  re- 
motest corners  of  the  world.  Henceforth  it  is  less 
what  generation  a  man  lives  in  and  more  what  the 
generative  power  of  the  man  who  lives.  Even 
Renan  could  say,  "  Whatever  may  be  the  surprises 
of  the  future,  Jesus  will  never  be  surpassed." 
Humanity  slowly  advances  toward  him  in  religious 
living,  but  he  is  and  ever  must  be  the  one  great 
captain  and  leader.  The  signs  he  works  are  forever 
less  than  the  sign  he  is.  God  makes  new  wheat  out 
of  old  wheat,  out  of  one  grain  not  only  a  new  body 
but  a  hundredfold  other  bodies  like  unto  it.  So 
Jesus  multiplies  the  seed,  the  word  of  God,  and  one 
sentence  of  his  has  wrought  a  greater  harvest  than 


[21 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


the  seven  full  years  brought  to  the  granaries  of 
Egypt.  The  seed  stores  of  the  fourfold  Gospel  pro- 
duce the  great  book  harvest  which  fills  the  libraries 
of  Christendom,  but  the  religion  of  Jesus  is  the  life 
of  the  seed. 

So  familiar  is  the  story  that  we  often  fail  to  see 
its  amazing  wonder.  Think  a  moment.  A  plain 
man,  in  a  Syrian  village,  who  died  centuries  ago,  is, 
in  this  twentieth  century,  the  embodiment  of  con- 
science for  the  whole  world.  In  a  world  always 
evolving  morality  no  one  ever  catches  up  with  him. 
"  Abreast  of  all  the  centuries,  he  is  the  pathbreaker 
of  mankind.  He  incarnates  the  light  and  truth  by 
which  I  live  today  because  he  cross-sectioned  life 
where  it  touches  God."  He  is  the  highest  I  know, 
and  by  the  highest  I  interpret  God.  As  the  alabas- 
ter box  filled  the  house  with  its  perfume,  so  the 
religion  of  Jesus  is  yet  to  fill  the  world  with  its 
perfume  of  holiness  through  lives  of  utmost  suffer- 
ing often,  yet  so  held  in  the  right  relation  with  God 
as  to  enjoy  full  assurance  of  transcendent  glory. 


[22] 


n 

DISCIPLES  AND  APOSTLES 


DISCIPLES  AND  APOSTLES' 


TO  Jesus  the  earth  is  a  house  of  God,  its  hills 
and  rocks  are  nature-altars  where  at  any  time 
he  may  find  the  Father.  On  a  certain  night,  as  his 
custom  was,  he  went  up  the  hill;  a  night  of  prayer 
equips  him  for  a  day  of  toil,  and  coming  down  to 
the  plain  he  chooses  twelve  apostles.  In  his  great 
prayer  he  said  more  than  once,  "  Thou  gavest  them 
to  me  " ;  was  it  in  that  night  they  were  given,  and 
did  he  talk  with  the  Father  about  John  and  Peter? 
That  which  is  natural  is  first,  then  that  which  is 
spiritual.  There  is  a  natural  history  of  Christian- 
ity and  of  Christian  activities.  Religion  is  kept  alive 
on  the  street,  not  in  the  cloister,  not  with  John  in 
the  wilderness,  but  with  Jesus  going  about  the 
towns  and  cities.  You  remember  the  motto :  Jesus 
alone  can  save  the  world,  hut  Jesus  cannot  save  the 
world  alone.  Going  about  Galilee  preaching,  teach- 
ing, and  healing,  the  people  crowd  upon  him,  and  so 
many  calls  come  from  other  places,  he  summons 
helpers.  "  It  was  in  those  days  that  he  went  off  to 
the  hillside  to  pray.  He  spent  the  whole  night  in 
prayer  to  God,  and  when  the  day  broke  he  sum- 
moned his  disciples,  choosing  twelve  of  them,  to 
whom  he  gave  the  names  of  apostles"  (Moffatt's 

1  Sermon   preached   on    Day   of   Prayer   for   Schools   and   Colleges, 
February  22,   191 7,  in  the  Crozer  Seminary  Chapel,  Upland,  Pa. 

[25  1 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


translation  of  Luke  6  :  12,  13).  He  uses  what  is 
to  bring  forth  what  is  to  be ;  out  of  the  best  of  the 
present  builds  the  highest  for  the  future. 

We  condemn  usually  by  wholesale,  **  all  have 
sinned,"  but  we  promote  individuals,  and  Jesus 
himself  gives  the  name  "  apostle,"  missionary.  Mis- 
sive, missile,  mission,  missionary,  have  one  root, 
and  the  missionary  may  be  regarded  as  sent  forth, 
thrust  forth,  hurled  forth  into  the  work  of  the 
kingdom.  Apostle  spells  advance,  aggressiveness, 
achievement.  This  verse  as  a  cluster  from  Eschol 
exceeding  rich  in  truth,  contains  far  more  than  we 
can  present  in  one  address. 

Are  we  disciples  or  apostles?  There  may  be  a 
great  difference  between  the  disciples  of  Jesus  and 
the  apostles  of  Christ.  When  he  is  deserted  by  dis- 
ciples, his  heart-cry  is  to  his  apostles,  "Will  ye 
also  go  away?  "  A  disciple  may  be  a  sponge,  but  an 
apostle  must  serve;  a  disciple  may  keep  his  nets, 
but  an  apostle  leaves  his  boats  and  nets;  a  disciple 
may  be  selfish,  but  an  apostle  must  have 

Room  to  deny  himself,  a  path 
To  bring  him   daily  nearer   God. 

He  finds  his  life  in  losing  it;  a  disciple  may  know 
much  about  Jesus;  but  an  apostle  must  be  able  to 
witness  with  Paul,  "  For  me  to  live  is  Christ,"  "  He 
lives  in  me,  the  hope  of  glory."  A  disciple  may 
imitate  and,  that,  another  disciple;  but  an  apostle 
must  assimilate,  incarnate,  and  reproduce  what  is 


[26] 


DISCIPLES  AND  APOSTLES 

given.  Liberty  and  promotion  are  bills  receivable 
whose  exchange  value  is  not  so  much  of  knowledge 
as  of  power  in  service.  Apostles  are  trustees  with 
power ;  special  work  is  expected,  but  special  oppor- 
tunity and  special  graces  are  given.  They  may  have 
honor,  but  they  must  have  life  and  fruit;  it  is  the 
choice  disciple  who  is  chosen  to  be  an  apostle. 
Jesus  unfolds  the  authority  and  the  contagion  of 
life ;  '*  I  in  you  and  you  in  me  "  is  spiritual  biology. 

"  Freely  ye  have  received,  freely  give."  What 
man  does  for  man  is  on  a  basis  of  parity,  it  is  give 
and  take,  but  on  Christ's  part  it  is  all  giving;  for 
truth  is  given  that  it  may  be  given  forth.  A  real 
sermon  is  a  living  deed,  its  truths  meet  our  needs 
and  quicken  our  spirits.  He  who  has,  will  have, 
and  giving  freely  will  increase  what  he  has.  It  is 
the  best  of  the  inner  life  that  flowers  out  for  the 
enriching  of  other  lives.  Effluence  and  influence 
are  brothers  close  as  Siamese  twins;  the  death  of 
either  kills  the  other.  Andrew  illustrates  both  in 
bringing  Simon,  his  brother,  to  Jesus,  for  we  know 
Him  fully  for  ourselves  only  as  we  bring  others  to 
know  and  enjoy  him. 

*'  I  have  chosen  you  and  placed  you  "  is  a  great 
witness  to  faith.  To  faith,  I  say,  not  of  the  men 
chosen,  for  they  knew  not  what  spirit  they  were  of, 
but  the  faith  of  Jesus  who  chose  them.  It  is  worth 
vastly  more  to  have  God  believe  in  me  than  that  I 
should  have  faith  in  him.  Henceforth  poor  men  from 
among  the  common  people  may  render  highest  ser- 

[27] 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


vice  to  the  church  and  the  world.  The  people  see 
little  in  these  men,  and  we  see  little,  at  first,  of  the 
power  the  world  needs,  yet  in  these  plain  men,  nar- 
row men,  Galilean  provincials,  Jesus  finds  captains 
for  the  most  wonderful  crusade  ever  planned.  It  is 
clear  that  grace  is  more  than  gifts  when  men  of 
Galilee  can  turn  the  world  upside  down.  We  know 
little  of  their  history,  yet  one  third  of  them  came  to 
honor,  and  Paul,  a  good  judge  of  men,  salutes  some 
of  them  as  "  pillars."  Fishermen  of  Galilee  have 
their  names  written  in  the  book  of  God's  purpose 
for  world  conquests.  Your  life  is  not  only  a  plan 
of  God  but  a  plan  of  God  for  Christ  and  you  and 
the  world.  An  upper  room  in  Jerusalem  once  held 
the  full  company  of  these  crusaders.  Edward 
Everett's  famous  challenge  for  the  Pilgrims  is  an- 
swered by  these  humble  Christians  who  front  the 
world  for  Christ  and  the  church. 

Religion  gains  the  rights,  feeds  the  faculties,  and 
guides  the  progress  of  mankind,  and  there  is  a  the- 
ology of  discovery  and  invention  as  well  as  of  doc- 
trine. God's  book  of  appointments  records  blue- 
prints for  world  building,  yet  it  is  not  by  rule  that 
we  live  and  work.  Obedience  may  be  forced  until 
it  sinks  into  mere  automatism  and  the  most  legal 
conduct  produces  the  most  immoral  character.  A 
man  may  say  "  in  whom  we  live  and  move  "  and 
continue  to  be  a  bad  man.  When  education  hardens 
into  rigid  rules,  the  more  we  are  taught  to  know 
the  less  we  are  likely  to  do  and  to  be.    Jesus  gives 


[28 


DISCIPLES  AND  APOSTLES 

spirit  and  life,  teaches  by  example,  and  puts  the 
apostles  to  work  under  his  own  eye.  We  are  not 
to  follow  rules  of  faith  and  practice,  but  a  living 
Lord,  whose  kingly  spirit  reigns  in  our  souls;  not 
so  much  to  defend  a  faith  as  to  transmute  faith  into 
character  and  fitness  for  service.  The  living  ex- 
perience of  the  soul  certifies  to  his  indwelling.  Who 
do  the  truth  know  the  truth.  Who  keep  his  words 
know  his  love.  "  Lo,  I  am  with  you  always  "  is 
not  only  promise  but  fact. 

In  his  parable  the  good  seed  of  one  verse  is  in 
the  next  verse  the  sons  of  the  kingdom;  the  word 
is  the  life.  Because  we  are  akin  to  God  and  can 
grow,  we  are  trained  and  are  worth  the  training. 
Brotherhood  in  need  and  in  ability  is  grounded  in 
the  Father's  supply  and  gracious  purpose  for  our 
unfolding.  It  pleases  God  to  reveal  his  Son  in  us 
the  source  and  substance  of  our  equipment. 

Chosen  to  be  "  with  him  "  is  the  graphic  word 
of  Mark  as  the  earlier  chronicler  wrote  of  some 
who  were  "  with  the  king  for  his  work."  Apostles 
are  Christ's  Comrades  of  Service,  his  Beneficent 
Brotherhood.  We  sharpen  our  sickles  to  cut  grass, 
for  iron  sharpeneth  iron,  much  more  the  countenance 
of  a  man  his  friend,  and  infinitely  more  the  heart 
of  the  Lord  the  hearts  of  the  men  of  his  choice. 
With  him  to  be  trained  into  personal  and  communal 
enriching ;  individual  work  and  team-work  are  both 
provided  for  and  expected.  Thus  are  disciples 
transformed  into  apostles. 

[29] 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


His  apostles  have  new  names,  new  natures,  new 
destiny,  new  training  until  we  are  able  to  see  that 
their  larger  life  has  lifted  them  out  of  the  flood  of 
current  tendencies  on  to  the  high  plateau  of  divine 
causes  and  purposes.  A  physician  must  know  the 
disease  and  the  remedy  but  also  the  body  in  which 
both  are  at  work.  Jesus  knew  sin  and  salvation  as 
well  as  man  and  the  world  in  which  both  were 
working  when  he  chose  the  twelve  plain  Galileans 
to  be  his  apostles.  Men  who  drift  with  the  tides  of 
tendency,  who  are  reading  today's  news  to  find 
texts  for  tomorrow's  sermons  are  not  likely  to  be 
trusted  with  large  commissions  for  the  kingdom 
of  God.  Men  who  sing  only  of  sweetness  and  light 
or  chirp  softly  of  the  humanities,  are  not  those  who 
turn  the  world  upside  down.  Jesus,  knowing  that 
he  had  come  forth  from  God  and  was  going  to 
God,  stands  before  them,  and  takes  not  a  sword, 
not  a  scepter,  but  a  towel,  and  girds  himself  to 
serve  even  Simon  and  Judas. 

Jesus  sets  the  standard  for  greatness;  he  that 
would  be  great  among  you  let  him  be  your  minister. 
He  came  to  serve,  not  to  be  served,  and  to  give  his 
life  a  ransom  for  many.  It  is  the  sacrifice  that  con- 
sumes the  sin  and  satisfies  the  soul,  the  ministry  of 
generous  self-suppression  that  paves  the  way  to  the 
greatness  of  self-enrichment  and  world-wide  exalta- 
tion. The  only  fruitful  thing  is  sacrifice.  "  The  king 
alone  can  make  the  kingdom ;  to  be  slaves  of  Christ, 
the  King  of  kings,  is  to  be  masters  of  every  fate." 


[30 


DISCIPLES  AND  APOSTLES 

One  great  law  of  humanity,  of  the  universe,  and 
of  the  being  of  God  is  written  large  in  his  life — the 
innocent  suffer  with  the  guilty,  and  more  than  the 
guilty,  and  often  for  the  guilty.  When  we  renounce 
ourselves,  the  life  and  love  of  God  pour  into  our 
souls,  for  the  river  of  God  is  always  full.  When 
the  highest  work  begins  the  lowest  down,  the  flood- 
gates of  joy  are  opened  to  the  soul  even  as  "  when 
the  burnt-offering  began,  the  song  of  the  Lord 
began  also  with  the  trumpets."  Men  long  for  hori- 
zon, and  Jesus  gives  expansion,  liberty,  spacious- 
ness, hope,  and  wondrous  honor.  Apostles  become 
ambassadors  for  God!  Their  personal  authority  is 
in  the  personal  authority  of  the  Christ. 

Oh,  the  height  of  the  riches  of  the  wisdom  and 
goodness  of  our  God  that  we  may  be  laborers  to- 
gether with  him !  That  never  means  less  work,  but 
more ;  work  all  the  more  because  God  is  our  partner. 
Who  ever  wrought  as  Jesus  did?  Set  free  to  serve, 
and  when  we  have  served  well,  we  are  promoted  to 
higher  and  more  difficult  service  for  our  reward. 
They  are  worthy  to  rule  who  have  learned  to  serve, 
and  the  more  spiritual  we  are,  the  more  we  are  his 
servants. 

It  is  for  the  future  they  are  chosen.  The  citizen- 
ship of  tomorrow  is  in  the  streets  and  the  schools 
of  today,  and  the  ministry  of  tomorrow  is  in  the 
churches  and  the  schools  of  today.  Is  it  to  be  a 
higher  citizenship  and  a  higher  ministry?  That  de- 
pends largely  upon  how  you  and  I  behave.    Serving 

[31] 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


well  our  own  generation  we  shall  be  doing  the  best 
for  the  next  and  the  coming  generations.  Faith  in 
God  is  kept  by  keeping  faith  with  God,  for  com- 
mission and  character  go  together. 

Truth  crushed  to  earth  will  rise  again;  yes,  but 
how  does  truth  get  up  ?  When  some  man  or  woman 
comes  along  filled  with  the  love  of  truth,  and  at  the 
risk  of  social  ostracism,  of  every  kind  of  opposition, 
perhaps  of  persecution  and  death,  picks  up  the  truth, 
holds  it  aloft,  and  carries  it  forward  to  victory. 
Bruno  and  Galileo,  John  Howard  and  Elizabeth  Fry, 
and,  yet  nearer  to  us,  Florence  Nightingale,  Neal 
Dow,  John  B.  Gough,  and  Frances  Willard,  vindi- 
cate this  fact.  Truth  is  strong  and  overarches  every 
generation,  but  truth  plus  personality  is  stronger. 
In  the  sphere  of  religion  it  is  sometimes  more  dif- 
ficult to  live  than  to  die.  It  is  certainly  true  that 
Paul  found  it  so,  as  he  tells  the  Philippians. 

Ambassadors  have  authority.  He  that  receiveth 
you  receiveth  me.  Jesus  himself  is  the  giver  and 
the  goal  of  their  highest  hopes.  It  has  been  well 
said :  "  Christianity,  in  its  broadest  definition,  is  sim- 
ply the  reality  of  things.  It  is  a  setting  forth  of  the 
true  order  of  humanity."  The  truths  committed 
to  apostles  are  realities ;  God  and  man,  heaven  and 
hell,  sin  and  salvation,  truth  and  error,  conscience 
and  reason  are  realities.  Jesus  and  his  work,  the  re- 
sources and  the  fruits  of  his  life,  are  realities.  Sum 
them  all  up,  and  you  have  the  reality  of  redemption, 
the  reality  of  present  resources,  and  the  reality  of 


[32] 


DISCIPLES  AND  APOSTLES 

future  glory,  and  these  are  foundations  which  can- 
not be  shaken.  ReHgion  has  its  immediacy,  "  He 
that  beHeveth  hath  everlasting  life,"  but  more  its 
forthcoming  glories  out  of  "  the  vast  far-stretching 
reaches  into  the  eternities."  This  is  life  eternal,  to 
know  God  and  Jesus  Christ  whom  he  hath  sent. 
Christian  optimism  is  "  the  permanent  post  of  the 
spirit  "  at  home  with  Christ. 

God  seeks  men,  not  creeds  or  books  or  buildings 
or  altars,  but  men.  As  Doctor  Gordon  used  to  say, 
"  The  world  needs  not  more  men,  but  more  Man," 
and  man  is  permanent  only  in  what  most  makes 
him  man.  Manhood  is  real  and  life  is  real  as  faith 
and  hope  are  real,  and  the  realities  Jesus  brings  may 
be  trusted  to  control  our  forms  and  methods  of 
operation.  Certain  men  have  somewhat  of  their 
authority  in  a  ring  they  wear,  but  I  can  think  that 
Paul's  chain  was  worth  more  to  him  than  any  ring 
ever  worn  by  an  ecclesiastic,  for  that  chain  bound 
him  to  the  Pretorian  guard,  and  by  that  chain  Paul 
entered  even  into  Caesar's  household.  Peter's  big 
hands,  his  boats  and  nets  are  not  more  real  than 
his  new  name  and  growing  character.  One  touch 
of  the  hem  of  the  robe  heals  because  Jesus  is  inside 
the  robe.  Wear  a  robe  and  a  ring  if  you  will,  but 
be  a  man  inside  them  both ;  preach  in  a  church  with 
its  dim  religious  light,  if  you  must,  but  do  not  let 
the  dim  religious  light  get  into  your  preaching. 
Failures  are  not  from  that  which  is  without  but 
from  inward  spiritual  evaporation  and  decay;  some 

[33] 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


men  who  complain  bitterly  of  the  dead-line  were 
dead  before  they  ever  touched  the  line.  Truth, 
purity,  love,  hope,  and  joy  live  today  brighter 
than  ever,  and  Jesus  in  whom  they  have  their  spring 
and  perfectness  lives  and  reigns  today  more  royally 
than  on  that  earlier  morning  in  Galilee.  Guerrilla 
chiefs  prance  up  and  down,  would-be  prophets  make 
silly  ventures,  and  some  are  disquieted;  but  He 
who  lighteth  every  man  coming  into  the  world  is 
God  with  us  and  in  us  all  the  days,  for  the  saving 
of  the  world. 

Jesus  is  the  man  of  the  imperial  intellect,  of  the 
imperial  heart,  and  of  the  imperial  will,  and  he 
chooses  us  because  we  also  can  think  and  feel  and 
do.  To  train  the  will  for  character  and  the  intellect 
for  insight  is  good ;  better  still  is  it  to  fuse  the  two 
into  one,  for  a  man  finds  himself  not  by  "  thinking 
but  by  doing." 

Who  wants  faith  at  the  cost  of  honest  and  clear 
thinking?  To  fall  in  love  with  our  own  thinking 
crowds  out  the  thoughts  of  God,  so  dear  to  the 
psalmist,  and  one  may  become  so  vain  of  his  own 
mind  as  to  leave  no  room  for  the  mind  of  Christ. 
Intellectual  integrity  is  better  than  intellectual  cul- 
ture, but  having  both,  melt  them  with  spiritual  fire ; 
then  though  poor  we  may  make  many  rich,  and  hav- 
ing nothing  may  possess  all  things. 

We  are  wholly  dependent  on  God,  for  without 
him  we  can  do  nothing.  The  other  side  is  also  true, 
for  God  can  do  nothing  for  us  or  through  us  for 


34 


DISCIPLES  AND  APOSTLES 

others  without  our  willing  surrender  to  him.  The 
potter  is  more  than  the  clay,  but  the  potter  can  do 
nothing  without  the  clay.  Noah's  ark  is  not  built 
without  Noah  or  Abram's  altars  without  Abram. 
Jesus  uses  water  to  make  the  wine  and  the  five 
barley  loaves  to  feed  the  multitude.  The  power  to 
think  and  feel  and  do  brings  us  into  debt  to  God 
to  think  clearly  and  correctly,  feel  deeply  and 
steadily,  work  earnestly  and  determinedly  and  to 
bring  forth  abundant  fruit  if  we  would  be  meet 
for  the  Master's  use.  Jesus  welcomes  differences 
among  his  disciples.  It  is  almost  like  romance  when 
Matthew  the  publican  and  Simon  the  zealot  are 
workers  in  comradeship.  He  calls  them  because 
they  differ,  and  then  knits  them  into  unity,  but  he 
must  have  a  disciple  to  start  with  or  he  cannot 
have  an  apostle. 

We  belong  to  Christ,  and  when  he  has  full  con- 
trol, even  "  dispositions  are  powers,  positive  forces, 
vitalizing  the  common  life  of  man  "  and  preventing 
"  the  perilous  leakage "  of  spirituality.  We  will 
have  boldness  concerning  spiritual  realities  and 
blend  "  with  every  mode  of  the  consecrated  spirit 
the  mighty  energy  of  God."  Wait  upon  God  until 
he  kneads  the  truth  into  the  whole  being,  for  the 
most  precious  gift  may  be  held  by  us  apart  from 
the  inner  life.  Pride  is  not  the  only  thing  that 
puffeth  up.  To  thirst  for  him  as  the  hart  for  the 
water  brooks,  to  have  no  higher  desire  than  that  of 
unity  with  him,  praying  steadily,  "  Unite  my  heart  to 

[35] 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


do  thy  will,"  to  live  and  move  and  have  our  being  in 
him  as  the  quick  experience  of  the  soul,  this  is  life 
indeed. 

It  is  written,  "  He  gave  them  power,"  and  again 
it  is  written,  "  As  the  Father  sent  me,  even  so  I 
send  you ;  and  he  breathed  on  them  saying,  '  Receive 
ye  the  Holy  Spirit.'  "  The  Spirit  brings  fire  into 
the  soul  even  as  with  Moses  the  fire  of  the  bush 
ever  after  burned  in  his  being.  And  what  is  fire? 
It  has  three  constituents,  light,  heat,  and  motion, 
and  these  transmuted  into  mental  and  spiritual 
energies  become  Vision,  Passion,  and  Action. 
Moses  endured  as  seeing  Him  who  is  invisible; 
prophets  and  apostles  had  power  as  they  looked 
upon  the  invisible  God.  Upon  all  with  which  we 
have  to  do  we  must  bring  to  bear  the  light  of  eter- 
nity, be  not  content  with  ideas  but  crave  ideals. 
Aaron  Burr  had  ideas  a  plenty;  but  Lincoln  had 
ideals  also  which  were  a  lamp  unto  his  feet  and  a 
light  unto  his  path.  Vision  soon  passes  into  voca- 
tion ;  it  is  the  man  who  has  seen  God  who  goes  out 
urgently  even  though  he  knows  not  whither  he 
goes,  and  our  Lord  for  the  joy  set  before  him  en- 
dured the  cross.  Newton  blowing  soap-bubbles,  and 
Cyrus  W.  Field  spending  months  as  a  hermit  in 
the  forests  of  Newfoundland,  had  visions  of  coming 
glories  for  God  and  man  when  their  ideals  should 
pass  into  principles  and  practices  for  the  welfare 
of  the  world.  Some  men  brilliant,  eloquent,  schol- 
arly, "  seeing  many  things  observe  not,"  the  vision 


[36] 


DISCIPLES  AND  APOSTLES 

of  God  leaves  no  imprint  on  their  souls  or  their 
faces,  and  the  hearts  of  men  burn  not  as  they  preach 
or  teach. 

With  vision  must  be  passion;  how  wonderful 
Moses'  life  at  this  point.  A  man  who  can  pray, 
"  Show  me  thy  glory ;  blot  me  out  of  thy  book ;  a 
prophet  like  unto  me  shall  God  raise  up,"  seems  to 
live  alongside  of  Paul  whose  sign  manual  "  In 
Christ "  certifies  that  he  has  the  right  to  cry  out,  "  I 
live,  yet  not  I,  Christ  lives  in  me."  It  is  the  con- 
straint of  love  that  makes  it  possible  for  him  to 
say,  "  I  could  wish  myself  accursed  from  Christ  for 
my  brethren."  To  eat  his  flesh  and  to  drink  his 
blood  is  more  than  to  follow  in  his  steps.  It  is  not 
imitation  so  much  as  it  is  assimilation  that  we 
need.  The  old-time  word,  "  the  fire  of  the  altar  shall 
not  go  out,"  is  witnessed  today  in  every  synagogue 
throughout  the  world ;  so  also  in  the  temples  of  the 
Spirit  should  abide  the  burning  heart,  as  the  energy 
we  need  in  work  and  worship.  Moses  "  endured  " ; 
vision  and  passion  were  wrought  into  action.  So 
apostles  filled  with  the  Spirit  were  always  men  of 
action,  the  most  prodigious  workers  the  world  con- 
tained. He  who  went  about  doing  good,  lived  and 
served  anew  in  them. 

The  greatest  agency  we  have  within  our  power  is 
prayer.  No  man  has  ever  wrought  an  outstanding 
work  for  God  who  was  not  a  man  of  prayer;  the 
greater  the  work  the  greater  the  life  of  prayer. 
"Who  through  the  eternal  spirit  oifered  himself 

[37] 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


an  unblemished  sacrifice  unto  God  " — it  is  as  if  the 
whole  life  were  gathered  up  into  one  act.  Prayer 
was  to  Him  as  the  normal  expression  of  his  whole 
being ;  he  was  not  only  wont  to  pray,  but  he  without 
ceasing  prayed.  His  unbroken  fellowship  with  the 
Father  was  only  mated  by  his  unutterable  love  to 
man.  Eminent  teachers  have  lately  said  that  Jesus 
did  not  need  to  pray.  I  do  not  believe  a  word  of 
that.  It  overlooks  the  foundation  fact  that  Jesus 
was  not  in  the  habit  of  doing  what  he  did  not  need 
to  do.  It  is  better  to  say,  "  He  prayed  with  all  his 
might  and  hurled  his  life  after  his  prayer."  And  the 
other  fact,  quite  as  important,  that  prayer  is  a  ser- 
vice of  much  wider  scope,  a  field  of  greater  extent 
than  most  men  have  yet  explored. 

As  the  cool  spring  of  the  hillside  sustains  life  in 
the  suffocating  heat  of  the  valley,  so  prayer  is  the 
fountain  of  refreshing  that  fills  the  soul  with  spir- 
itual energy.  It  is  a  source  of  perpetual  power  for 
the  needs  of  the  spirit.  Paul  makes  a  wonderful 
statement  of  prayer  and  the  Holy  Spirit  in  a  quite 
unused  but  most  remarkable  personal  experience: 
"  For  I  know  that  this  "  (bonds,  factions,  the  whole 
trial  of  the  earlier  part  of  the  chapter),  "I  know 
that  this  shall  turn  out  to  my  salvation,  through 
your  supplications  and  the  supply  of  the  Spirit  of 
Jesus  Christ"  (Phil.  1  :  19).  It  is  the  only  time 
the  Spirit  has  that  title,  the  only  time  his  life-giving 
service  is  spoken  of  as  a  steady  flowing  into  our 
souls,  as  the  water  flows  into  our  homes,  and  then 


[38] 


DISCIPLES  AND  APOSTLES 

with  that  is  joined  the  praying  of  young,  almost 
untrained  disciples.  Philippians  become  indeed  fel- 
low citizens  of  the  commonwealth  of  God  when 
praying  with  and  for  Paul.  Was  ever  higher  tribute 
given  to  ordinary  prayer? 

To  Paul  it  was  no  "  wave  of  golden  mist  athwart 
the  sky,"  but  rather  as  in  "  wondrous  barter  he  ex- 
changed a  dead  self  for  a  living  Christ."  Here  we 
gain  the  power  to  see  and  the  courage  to  do  the  will 
of  God.  God  never  does  for  us  what  we  can  do  for 
ourselves.  The  man  of  prayer  is  the  man  of  power. 
Doctor  Strong  says  men  came  from  the  college  to 
him  who  "  could  tell  their  whole  experience  without 
once  naming  sin  or  Christ."  What  do  such  men 
know  of  prayer?  It  is  a  battle-field  where  many  a 
giant  is  laid  low  and  we  are  given  the  victory.  It 
is  often  a  duel  between  lust  and  love.  Prayer  melts 
chains  that  hammers  and  anvils  could  not  break. 
Study  may  make  scholars,  but  saints  are  made 
through  prayer.  Havelock's  saints  won  their  vic- 
tories first  on  their  knees ;  the  knee-drill  of  the  Sal- 
vation Army  brings  the  courage  required  for  their 
lads  and  lassies  in  the  personal,  practical  work  of 
the  street.  The  heat  of  intercession  melts  the  proud 
heart,  and  kneeling  in  prayer  makes  good  kindling 
for  a  burning  heart.  Good  men  do  not  always  show 
good  sense;  my  scythe  has  often  seemed  good,  but 
the  work  done  was  not  good,  for  I  had  failed  to 
whet  my  scythe.  Go  through  your  closets  to  your 
services  one  and  all,  and  especially  to  your  preach- 

[39] 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


ing.  Power  with  men  for  God  is  the  fruit  of  power 
with  God  for  men;  therefore  speak  with  God  ere 
you  speak  to  men,  and  speak  with  him  ere  you 
assume  to  speak  for  him.  Have  no  fear  that  we 
will  draw  too  near  to  God  or  that  Christ  will  get  too 
strong  a  hold  upon  our  hearts. 

Not  what  we  ask,  but  why  and  how  are  the  more 
important.  It  is  an  old  jingle,  but  it  has  a  good 
lesson. 

Prayers  and  praises  go  in  pairs — 
They  have  praises  who  have  prayers. 

Mankind  could  ill  afford  to  lose  all  the  art,  the 
literature,  the  science  of  Greece  and  Rome  and  of 
the  earlier  Eastern  nations,  yet  the  prophets  of 
Israel  and  the  apostles  of  Christ  have  bequeathed 
a  vastly  richer  heritage  to  men.  Their  writings 
and  experiences  are  the  treasure-trove  of  power,  the 
seed-bins  of  harvests  for  all  time.  The  world's 
Greathearts  have  not  surpassed  their  vision,  pas- 
sion, and  action.  Knowing  how  to  pray,  they  be- 
came conquerors,  and  no  group  of  workers  in  any 
other  field  of  human  welfare  have  wrought  more 
and  more  worthily  for  God  and  man.  Prayer 
creates  optimism,  and  here  they  shine  as  stars  whose 
light  will  never  know  eclipse. 

Bunyan's  thought  of  Jerusalem  sinners  and  the 
devil's  castaways  illustrates  Paul's  "  where  sin 
abounded,  grace  did  much  more  abound."  The 
world's  discarded  waste  is  God's  raw  material  for 


[40] 


DISCIPLES  AND  APOSTLES 

some  of  his  saints.  The  redemptive  purpose  of  God 
is  not  a  patchwork  put  together  after  the  rent  ap- 
peared ;  it  had  its  birth  in  the  far  distant  eternities, 
or  ever  the  foundations  of  the  earth  were  laid  or  the 
balancings  of  the  clouds  were  known.  To  Paul  and 
the  apostles  this  purpose  was  as  an  atmosphere  in 
which  all  thoughts  and  desires  and  doings  had  their 
enriching  and  sustaining  breath.  It  is  not  a  sud- 
den summer  shower,  but  through  the  dark  back- 
ground and  abyss  of  sin  this  eternal  purpose  pours 
in  floods  of  grace  and  glory.  To  these  men  of  God 
the  base,  the  despised,  the  things  that  are  nothing, 
are  clothed  with  light;  the  dead  in  sin  are  to  stand 
in  the  presence  of  God  without  any  spot  or  wrinkle. 
Visions  of  the  coming  glory  inspire  songs  of  victory. 
Paul  is  the  preeminent  optimist,  his  "  conception  of 
life  is  amazingly  rich  in  friendly  dynamics."  "  To 
live  is  Christ,  to  die  is  gain,  to  be  absent  from  the 
body  is  to  be  at  home  with  the  Lord,"  and  these  are 
more  real  to  him  than  the  chains  on  his  hands  and 
feet  or  the  solid  earth  on  which  he  treads.  He  is 
the  color-bearer  of  the  apostolic  company,  easily  the 
foremost  man  "  with  the  upward  look,"  always  re- 
joicing in  hope.  And  through  all  his  earthly  toil 
faith,  hope,  love,  prayer,  one  and  all  work;  God 
works  in  while  he  works  out,  and  he  is  girt  on  every 
side  by  the  things  that  work  together  for  good. 

The  glory  of  Christianity  is  not  in  its  past.  We 
do  well  to  follow  Paul  as  he  followed  Christ,  but  we 
cannot  return  even  to  the  apostles  for  our  types 

[41] 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


of  service;  every  generation  must  frame  its  own 
methods  of  attack  and  defense.  They  have  their 
portion  now  in  that  cloud  of  witnesses  of  which 
he  wrote.  We  can  and  ought  to  do  all  things 
through  Christ.  If  captains  of  earth's  foremost 
workers  count  upon  the  fixedness  of  nature  and  her 
inexhaustible  resources  when  they  look  forward, 
much  more  ministers  of  grace  should  count  upon 
our  covenant-keeping  God  and  the  unsearchable 
riches  of  Christ.  More  light  is  yet  to  break  out 
from  the  word  of  the  Lord;  his  assurance  of 
"  greater  works  "  to  be  done,  of  "  all  truth  "  to  be 
opened,  has  not  yet  been  fulfilled.  Is  it  reserved 
for  this  twentieth  century  to  rejoice  in  all  these 
marvels  of  God  accomplished  ? 

I  look  for  refreshing  from  the  Lord  in  the  rescue 
of  multitudes  and  in  their  building  up  unto  him,  for 
missionary  zeal  far  and  away  beyond  what  any 
man  or  age  has  yet  revealed,  for  beneficence  that 
shall  become  Christians  in  a  day  of  prosperity,  for 
evangelistic  education  and  educated  evangelism 
known  of  all  as  the  two  arms  of  active  Christians, 
for  preachers  worthy  also  to  be  called  "  golden- 
mouthed,"  like  the  beloved  Judson  whose  "  artful 
artlessness  or  artless  artfulness  "  was  always  sanc- 
tified to  the  Christ  unto  whom  he  gave  his  life,  and 
who  shall  be  winners  of  souls  beyond  a  Wesley  or  a 
Spurgeon,  and  for  the  day  when  all  who  confess 
Christ  shall  be  examples  to  them  that  believe  in 
word,  in  manner  of  life,  in  love,  in  faith,  in  purity. 


[42 


Ill 

A  COMPLETED  MINISTRY 


A  COMPLETED  MINISTRY 


PAUL  sums  up  his  advice  coveting  completeness 
for  Timothy — a  choice  but  timid  spirit  who 
needs  a  higher  estimate  of  himself  and  of  his 
work — in  the  words  "  Complete  thy  ministry." 
True  self-respecl  commands  others'  real  respect. 
Aiming  to  magnify  the  office,  our  self-esteem  yoked 
with  self-indulgence  and  surpassed  only  by  ignorance 
of  the  pride  that  lurks  within,  we  may  end  by  mag- 
nifying ourselves. 

Beware  of  too  sublime  a  sense 

Of  your  own  worth  and  consequence. 

If  we  count  ourselves  really  helpless,  we  have  a 
dynamic  of  untold  power  ready  to  our  use,  *'  for  it  is 
just  when  I  am  frail  that  I  am  truly  strong."  The 
inner  man  may  thrive  when  the  outer  man  shrinks, 
the  body  move  from  strong  to  weak  while  the  soul 
moves  from  weak  to  strong.  Becoming  old  in  years 
may  be  growing  young  in  spirit  and  life,  for  truth 
and  the  soul  have  no  gray  hairs. 

The  virtue  of  the  veteran  puts  new  vigor  into 
the  young  soldier.  Paul  the  aged,  the  prisoner  of 
the  Lord,  is  writing;  his  cold  body  sorely  needs 
the  cloak  left  at  Troas,  but  he  writes  with  a  hot 
heart.     The  fire  of  Paul's  great  soul  burns  in  his 

[45] 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


prison  letters  even  after  many  years,  and  multitudes 
of  Christians  walk  in  its  light  today.  Yea,  many 
walk  in  light  kindled  by  sparks  from  men's  souls 
called  "  fools  "  in  their  own  generation.  He  who 
is  about  to  die  salutes;  it  is  the  superb  salute  of 
a  shackled  hand.  "  Timothy,  my  child,  my  work  is 
done ;  I  am  as  wine  about  to  be  poured  on  the  altar, 
as  a  ship  putting  out  to  sea,  as  a  wrestler  whose  race 
is  run,  as  a  soldier  who  has  kept  his  oath  of  loyalty. 
I  solemnly  charge  you  before  God  and  Christ  Jesus 
the  Judge,  never  blush  for  the  witness  you  bear 
of  our  Lord  nor  for  me  his  prisoner ;  preach  Christ, 
be  urgent  in  season,  out  of  season,  reprove,  rebuke, 
exhort  with  tireless  patience,  herald  the  glad  tidings, 
complete  your  service  as  God's  steward." 

What  did  Paul  want  completed?  What  are  the 
essentials  of  a  complete  ministry?  An  analysis  of 
these  pastoral  letters  makes  clear  at  least  four 
things:  Furnishing,  Timeliness,  Personality,  and 
Supernaturalness,  or  Having,  Doing,  Giving,  and 
Being.  The  making  of  good  ministers  of  Jesus 
Christ  approaches  the  glory  of  fine  art,  yet  fledg- 
lings may  fly  out  of  a  seminary  even  today.  Scrip- 
ture given  that  we  may  be  complete,  thoroughly 
equipped  for  all  good  work,  is  full  of  inspiring  ideas 
and  ideals  and  also  is  full  of  definite  truths,  ethical, 
moral,  political,  social,  and  humane.  Close  study 
makes  these  our  own,  and  since  we  deal  with  sins  as 
well  as  sin,  we  have  truths  as  well  as  truth.  Ologies 
and  isms  are  here  not  ticketed  and  barnacled  as  we 


[46] 


A  COMPLETED  MINISTRY 

know  them,  still  less  exalted  above  the  gospel,  and 
also  warnings  as  to  science  falsely  so  called. 

Make  sure  of  truth, 
And  truth  will  make  thee  sure ; 

It  will  not  shift  nor  fade  nor  die. 
But  like  the  heavens  endure. 

Timothy,  a  pastor  in  Ephesus,  beautiful  as  any  of 
our  own  cities  and  worse  than  any  American  city — 
a  young  man  well  fitted  to  the  work — Paul  seeks 
for  him  a  higher  training.  Hence  the  figures,  sol- 
dier, racer,  wrestler,  and  farmer  follow  each  other 
quickly :  that  he  be  brave,  inured  to  hardship,  skilful, 
patient,  and  persistent  in  toil.  We  cannot  be  good 
ministers  of  Christ  without  superhuman  effort. 
Paul  follows  Jesus  in  not  hiding  the  facts,  but  puts 
persecutions  and  trials  squarely  before  Timothy  and 
says  "  suffer  hardship  "  three  times  within  a  few 
score  lines.  He  must  be  no  dress-parade  soldier 
but  a  real  man,  ready  to  war  a  good  warfare  in  the 
market-place  or  the  arena  as  well  as  in  the  syna- 
gogue or  assembly. 

The  elements,  the  relations,  the  aspects  of  our 
nature  as  religious,  is  our  sphere;  the  soul,  its  con- 
stitution, its  hindrances,  its  destinies,  is  our  sphere ; 
the  awful  certainties  of  heaven  and  earth  and  hell  is 
our  sphere. 

Who  would  rush  into  such  a  service  before  he  is 
sent?  What  calling  justifies  a  longer  apprentice- 
ship?    Yet   name   one   into   which   some  types   of 

[47] 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


men  crowd  themselves  more  hastily.  Happy  is 
Timothy  to  be  trained  by  one  who  knows  the  quali- 
fications and  exalts  them  in  his  own  person.  Paul 
recounts  prophecies  and  special  gifts — the  unfeigned 
faith,  good  conscience,  and  nurture  under  choicest 
teachers  from  childhood — urges  him  to  abide  in  the 
things  learned,  to  hold  fast  his  convictions,  and  to 
be  strong  in  Christ.  On  such  foundations  build 
courage,  diligence,  health,  and  purity,  enjoy  read- 
ing and  meditation,  preach  as  a  man  approved  of 
God,  a  workman  not  abashed  who  rightly  divides 
the  word  of  truth,  and  as  a  citizen  be  an  example 
to  all  other  citizens  in  conduct,  in  faith,  in  love,  and 
in  valor. 

Timothy,  the  opposite  of  those  who,  ever  learn- 
ing, never  know  the  truth,  is  open-minded — the 
normal  attitude  of  true  preachers.  The  open  mind, 
the  pure  heart,  finds  God,  walks  with  him,  and  is 
transformed  into  the  glory  of  his  own  image.  Love 
the  truth,  seek  the  truth,  do  the  truth  with  every 
window  open  toward  Jerusalem  is  an  apostolic 
formula  for  power,  a  divine  statute  of  survival ; 
and  the  world  needs  such  a  truth-loving  ministry 
today  more  than  ever.  Welcome  the  critics,  who 
may  have  keener  minds,  though  without  honest  love 
of  the  truth  they  are  not  surer  guides.  Luther 
would  lose  himself  for  the  truth ;  Erasmus  would 
lose  the  truth  for  himself.  Luther  the  duller  is 
the  truer ;  and  passing  by  the  scholar  we  pay  tribute 
to  the  monk  who  loved  the  truth. 


[48] 


A  COMPLETED  MINISTRY 

Be  noble!  and  the  nobleness  that  lies 
In  other  men,  sleeping  but  never  dead, 
Shall  rise  in  majesty  to  meet  thine  own. 

The  differences  of  the  divine  library  show  the 
differences  of  the  writers  and  of  their  times,  for 
every  age  has  its  own  birthmarks.  The  prophet  of 
old,  first  a  preacher  to  his  own  generation,  has 
therein  the  hiding  of  his  power;  rightly  to  divide 
the  word  of  truth  is  to  drive  the  ploughshare  in 
straight  furrows;  it  is  that  ministers,  rightly  to 
apply  Christianity,  must  know  the  signs  of  the 
times. 

It  is  a  day  of  drift;  now  hard  by  rocks  of  the 
Unknowable,  and  now  by  blast  furnaces  of  the 
spiritistic  all-knowable.  It  is  a  day  of  surprises,  a 
day  of  swing;  many  not  rooted  are  swept  like  chaff 
before  winds  of  doctrine.  Men  swing  from  the  un- 
knowable to  infallibility  in  the  morning,  from  un- 
belief to  sacerdotalism  at  noon,  and  from  material- 
ism to  spiritism  at  night;  they  have  no  anchorage. 
Oceans  have  both  surface  and  deeper  currents ;  there 
is  also  a  drift  to  ethics  and  morals  and  spirituality, 
and  the  dismal  science  becomes  a  moral  science. 
Wholesome  is  the  drift  from  theories  to  things, 
from  philosophies  to  facts  and  the  deep  hunger  for 
God.  John,  disciple  of  the  inner  life  who  gives  us 
the  heart  of  Jesus,  begins  his  epistle  with  scientific 
proofs ;  the  Word  of  life  is  the  true  God ;  hearing, 
seeing,  handling,  they  know  with  joy  the  Eternal 
Life.    This,  followed  by  the  deepest  spiritual  ex- 

[49] 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


periences,  makes  that  epistle  one  of  the  best  anti- 
dotes to  some  false  teachings  so  popular  today. 

It  is  a  chameleon-colored  day  with  varieties  of 
Christians  and  specimens  of  the  varying  types  in 
the  pulpit.  Some  Orientals  holding  their  confes- 
sions and  their  flowing  robes  ahke  loosely,  can  hide 
reserved  opinions  or  skip  from  one  extreme  to  an- 
other at  an  hour's  notice.  Some  windmill  brethren, 
swirling  the  popular  above  the  profitable,  move  with 
any  wind  as  mists  driven  by  a  squall.  Others  scoff 
at  what  they  are  ignorant  of,  or  are  as  hour-glass 
followers,  more  Galatian  than  Ephesian.  Like  peo- 
ple, like  priest;  the  itching  ears  find  preachers  to 
tickle  them. 

It  is  a  day  of  greed  and  scorn,  of  questions  and 
pride  of  intellect,  of  vice  and  crime ;  men  chant  the 
praises  of  fog  and  canonize  ignorance.  It  is  a  day 
of  high  fever;  the  speculative  spirit  seizes  many  in 
religion  as  in  business.  Such  conditions  and  worse 
existed  in  Ephesus ;  hence  Paul  rouses  Timothy  to 
the  difficulties  as  well  as  to  the  divine  guidance  in 
carrying  out  his  ministry.  Form  and  method  have 
greatly  changed  in  this  twentieth  century,  but  the 
greed  and  pride,  the  arrogance  and  idolatry  even  of 
that  old  city  differently  cloaked,  curse  our  cities  to- 
day. The  truth  and  spirit  with  which  Paul  meets 
them,  and  with  which  we  must  meet  them,  are  un- 
changed. He  does  not  cry,  "  New  lamps  for  old," 
but  with  new  oil  makes  old  lamps  burn  clearer  and 
to  send  true  light  from  that  far-away  day  unto  our 


[50] 


A  COMPLETED  MINISTRY 

eyes  and  hearts.  Humanity  has  fallen,  is  fallen,  and 
will  fall,  but  even  its  derelicts  and  wrecks  are  above 
price.  Paul  would  have  Timothy  a  spiritual  Great- 
heart  to  love  men  out  of  their  sins. 

Barnabas  to  save  Antioch  goes  to  Tarsus  for 
Paul,  the  greatest  service  Barnabas  ever  rendered 
that  city,  his  generation,  the  whole  religious  world 
of  that  time,  and  the  Christianity  of  today.  Wliat 
journey  is  worth  more  for  the  world's  well-being 
than  that  short  trip  ?  Barnabas  is  not  only  a  son  of 
consolation  but  a  son  of  Issachar  who  knows  what 
Israel  ought  to  do.  The  gospel  for  all  men  and 
for  all  time  that  Paul  developed  at  Antioch,  is  our 
present  need.  We  can  magnify  it,  for  we  know 
Christ,  yesterday,  today,  and  forever  the  same  per- 
sistent personality,  is  adapted  for  and  to  be  inter- 
preted unto  every  creature.  Every  age  needs  a 
restatement  of  theological  as  of  ethical  views,  for 
who  serves  not  his  own  generation  with  fidelity  will 
not  truly  serve  any  generation. 

Some  array  creed  against  conduct,  some  exalt 
speculative  thought  above  exact  inquiry,  and  some 
exalt  exact  inquiry  above  the  spiritual  perception  of 
truth.  Timothy  had  such  a  fight,  ministers  have  al- 
ways to  meet  this  kind,  and  Paul  points  the  way  to 
victory ;  but  the  war  must  be  waged  again  and  again. 
Christianity  is  practical,  not  speculative,  not  merely 
beautiful  and  helpful,  but  necessary  to  life.  Man 
cannot  live  by  bread  alone.  Timothy  must  bear 
with  wrong  thinkers  and  wrong-doers,  in  meekness 

[511 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


and  patience  instruct  them,  for  God  may  give  them 
repentance,  awake  them  to  soberness,  and  clutch 
them  out  of  the  snares  of  demons. 

Days  of  adversity  are  mothers  of  the  highest 
faiths  and  forces;  our  God  gives  honey  out  of  the 
rocks.  Days  of  peril  are  days  of  opportunity  and 
pov^er  and  may  be  days  of  greatest  hope.  The 
crisis  of  the  church  is  to  the  glory  of  the  Christ. 
Clearer  thinking,  truer  devotion,  and  stronger  cour- 
age appear  and  increased  assurance  that  the  gospel 
of  God  is  equal  to  the  sin  of  any  age.  Ethics  and 
ologies  cannot  change  the  carnal  mind;  but  the 
Christ  who  died,  the  one  cure  for  man's  sin,  is  the 
power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  every  believer.  Mix 
nothing  with  truth  when  you  preach,  and  mix  noth- 
ing with  the  love  of  truth  when  you  prepare.  Study 
knowing  that  you  and  your  hearers  are  born  for 
eternity,  preach  knowing  that  you  and  your  hearers 
have  only  today  to  live  and  that  God  will  give  the 
increase.  Science  and  art,  literature  and  philosophy 
may  flourish,  but  sin  will  flourish  more,  and  men 
fall  because  sin  is  the  strong  man.  Feather  your 
arrows  but  know  that  only  the  gospel  of  the  glory 
of  God  conquers  the  strong  man.  "  In  all  ages 
the  men  whose  determinations  are  swayed  by  refer- 
ence to  the  most  distant  ends,  have  been  held  to  be 
possessed  of  the  highest  intelligence."  Paul  thirsts 
for  the  horizons  of  truth,  and  with  a  long  look 
ahead  taking  in  life  and  death  and  God,  he  indicates 
and  illustrates  the  heart  of  the  gospel. 


52 


A  COMPLETED  MINISTRY 

Preach  the  great  truths;  dabbhng  with  pleasing 
texts  may  tempt  men  to  build  on  sand,  careless  of 
underpinning  until  the  storm  is  upon  them.  Scrip- 
ture is  full  of  great  themes,  and  on  such  real  meat 
great  souls  are  fed.  **  Come  to  Jesus,"  "  Only  be- 
lieve," are  true,  but  are  not  a  full  gospel.  '*  What 
must  I  do  to  be  saved?"  is  good.  "What  must  I 
do  since  I  am  saved  to  come  to  the  full  knowledge 
of  the  truth?  "  is  better,  for  you  are  to  bring  men 
in  to  build  them  up.  We  are  in  no  danger  of  be- 
coming too  well  acquainted  with  the  Bible,  and  he 
is  best  fitted  to  preach  who  never  lets  up  in  study. 
The  great  truth  of  the  cross  is  God's  holy  love 
and  the  great  gift  of  the  cross  is  the  Holy  Spirit. 
When  you  have  read  your  New  Testament  through 
for  the  thousandth  time,  the  real  marrow,  the  spirit 
and  life  of  its  uncounted  treasures  will  enrich  both 
mind  and  heart.  The  late  beloved  Dr.  Henry  G. 
Weston  for  a  series  of  years  read  his  Testament 
through  every  month;  no  wonder  his  mind  was 
saturated,  not  only  with  the  language,  but  with 
the  deepest  spirit  of  this  priceless  book. 

Dramatic  loyalty  to  truths  may  be  rank  dis- 
loyalty to  the  truth.  The  man  who  preaches  con- 
tinuously on  the  Second  Advent  is  an  Adventist, 
not  a  Baptist.  Under  obligation  first  to  Christ  as 
the  Head,  then  to  the  churches  we  serve,  then  to 
the  church  of  God  and  the  world  in  which  we  live, 
Baptists  have  respect  to  the  whole  counsel  of  God. 
Have  no  fear  of  digging  deep,  know  the  worth  both 

[53] 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


of  influence  and  effluence,  and  convert  your  findings 
of  doctrine  into  life. 

Meet  the  demand  of  the  age  by  a  manly,  spir- 
itual, truth-loving  ministry.  The  organist  must 
know  his  instrument,  himself,  and  the  music,  not  to 
exhibit  himself  or  the  organ,  but  rightly  to  render 
the  music  set  before  him.  The  physician  must  know 
the  disease  and  the  remedy,  but  more  the  body  in 
which  both  are  at  work.  So  we  must  know  sin 
and  the  soul,  our  chief  work  not  to  make  sermons 
but  to  save  men.  We  must  shun  fables  and  old 
wives'  mysteries,  for  ours  is  a  daylight  gospel,  "  the 
sunburst  of  a  new  morn  come  to  earth,"  and  truth 
like  the  sun  will  be  its  own  witness.  Milton  is 
right,  *'  the  very  essence  of  truth  is  plainness  and 
brightness."  Our  own  Dr.  John  A.  Broadus  was  a 
prince  of  preachers,  and  pithy  plainness  was  the 
pearl  of  his  preaching.  A  little  less  ambition  to  be 
notable  would  be  of  vast  benefit.  Give  fact  and 
truth  as  God  gives  them ;  no  scientist  can  add  to  the 
corn  a  new  life  germ,  and  a  child's  little  finger  may 
take  from  a  plum  the  bloom  that  all  the  chemists 
in  the  land  cannot  restore.  Give  the  gospel  as  God 
gives  it,  and  the  seed  which  is  the  word  of  God 
today  will  tomorrow  be  the  children  of  God.  The 
twentieth  century  cannot  add  to  Christ's  words  of 
spirit  and  life. 

Preach  the  word  positively  with  the  note  of  au- 
thority— the  note,  not  the  air  of  authority — do  not 
play  the  priest  before  your  people.    The  gospel  of 

[54] 


A  COMPLETED  MINISTRY 

authority  by  a  man  of  humility  will  bring  forth 
grapes  of  Eschol.  He  who  knows  how  to  pray  well 
preaches  well,  for  we  lose  authority  when  we  lose 
intimacy  with  Christ. 

One  **  I  know  "  of  Paul  outweighs  a  thousand  of 
the  best  thinkers'  "  It  may  be."  After  fourteen 
days  of  storm  and  fog  his  "  I  believe  God  "  gives 
the  ship  a  new  captain  and  the  soldiers  a  new 
leader.  A  fiddler  who  strikes  the  right  chord  may 
bring  down  a  metal  bridge,  but  a  man  of  faith  may 
build  up  a  bridge  over  which  cowards  marching  be- 
come heroes.  Truth  clearly  put  in  the  heat  of  con- 
viction sets  in  motion  responsive  chords  in  the  soul 
for  edification.  We  suffer  from  four  things,  un- 
reality, uncertainty,  satisfaction  with  ourselves, 
and  unripeness,  and  we  soon  learn  that  a  craven 
leader  cannot  have  a  brave  following.  Have  faith 
in  God  and  courage;  like  begets  like,  and  for  this 
we  are  given  the  spirit  of  power  and  of  love  and 
of  self-control.  Faith's  witness  is  activity ;  nothing 
so  manifests  its  special  qualities  as  intercession,  for 
the  patience,  the  obedience,  and  the  victory  of  faith 
are  written  large  in  prayer  for  others.  True  prayer, 
real  fellowship  with  Christ,  the  touch  of  his  spirit 
with  our  spirits,  the  direct  inreach  of  his  being 
brooding  over  our  being,  will  give  us  courage  to 
face  Satan  himself  and  not  flinch. 

Give  the  truth  its  spiritual  and  practical  use. 
Granite  rocks  are  pierced  by  drills  faced  with  small 
diamonds,  and  hard  hearts  may  be  pierced  when  we 

[55] 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


face  our  message  with  clear  truth.  Truth,  mark 
you,  not  on  the  right  or  the  left  or  in  the  midde  of 
the  road,  but  as  truth  is  in  Jesus.  David  winced 
when  Nathan  said,  "  Thou  art  the  man."  Our 
Scripture  is  for  right  thinking,  yet  more  for  right 
living,  its  truths  real  and  quickening,  indeed,  but  of 
full  worth  when  they  draw  us  near  to  God  and 
grow  the  fruit  of  lives  pleasing  to  him.  The  mes- 
sage must  burn  our  own  souls  if  we  would  set 
others  afire  with  zeal  or  hear  them  say,  ''  Did  not 
our  hearts  burn  within  us  when  he  opened  to  us 
the  Scriptures  ?  " 

Do  not  ask  a  hundred  people  to  give  you  thirty 
minutes  each,  and  then  give  them  an  aimless  palaver 
or  a  shower  of  verbal  pyrotechnics,  for  you  would 
rob  both  God  and  man.  We  may  waste  fifty  hours 
in  one  service  hour,  and  we  who  hide  ourselves  be- 
hind a  manuscript  should  recall  Dr.  William  R. 
Williams'  saying :  "  There  is  extemporaneous  writ- 
ing as  well  as  extemporaneous  speaking."  Do  your 
own  thinking  and  think  thoroughly  if  you  would 
save  your  hearers  from  mental  marasmus.  Sheep 
kept  lean  by  baled  hay  will  thrive  on  fresh-mown 
hay  cut  from  the  field  of  your  experience.  Com- 
positors might  set  up  and  proof-readers  go  through 
the  entire  New  Testament  and  be  nothing  bettered. 
One  man  saying,  '*  I  was  blind  and  now  I  see,"  and 
a  beggar,  once  lame  but  now  healed,  were  stronger 
in  testimony  for  Christ  than  all  the  strength  of 
opposition  to  him  in  the  Sanhedrin., 

[56] 


A  COMPLETED  MINISTRY 


Living  personality  is  emphasized:  Thee,  Thy, 
Thou.  Timothy  must  stand  in  his  own  shoes  and  ac- 
compHsh  his  own  ministry;  he  must  guard  what  he 
has,  keep  himself  pure,  be  sober,  be  urgent,  and 
kindle  the  gift  entrusted  to  him.  No  one  moves 
another  himself  unmoved,  and  no  minister  changes 
the  beliefs  or  doings  of  men  without  deep  soul  con- 
victions. We  must  be  something  more  than  bank- 
tellers  paying  out  other  people's  money.  Is  Jesus 
removed  from  us  by  nineteen  centuries,  or  is  he 
born  in  us  and  living  in  us  the  life  we  live  to- 
day? Whoso  preaches  Christ  must  have  Christ's 
life  and  Christ's  character,  be  a  true  light-bearer 
and  a  real  life-giver.  Jesus  lives;  it  is  not  an  in- 
fluence or  spiritual  process ;  his  whole  ministry  is  a 
personal  fact  and  truth  today  when  everything  tends 
to  break  down  personality.  Mass  movements  and 
group  movements  and  block  movements  are  un- 
doubtedly doing  good,  but  the  individual  must  not 
be  crushed  into  dust  and  the  idea  of  his  personal 
accountability  pounded  out  of  him. 

Give  yourself  your  own  soul,  your  own  gifts,  the 
coin  minted  in  your  own  mind;  but  do  not  fall  in 
love  with  your  own  phrase-making;  your  words  at 
the  best  may  be  only  as  feather-tips  for  God's 
arrows.  The  true  minister  gives  himself  to  his 
work ;  his  body  to  weariness  and  to  want  if  need  be, 
his  spirit  parted  among  his  people  for  their  cheer 
and  comfort.  No  stingy  self-reserve,  no  prudential 
economy  can  we  practise  if  we  would  do  full  service 


[57] 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


for  God.  An  educated  man  is  an  invincible  force 
when  unconditionally  surrendered  to  Christ;  but  a 
man  absorbed  in  himself  will  not  only  have  a  fool 
for  his  friend,  and  a  poor  one  at  that,  but  be  as 
empty  of  power  as  a  soap-bubble ;  he  is  most  empty 
usually  who  is  most  full  of  himself. 

The  vessel  of  honor  of  wood  or  gold  is  one  sanc- 
tified unto  Christ  alone.  Who  gives  himself  with 
all  his  might  through  all  his  life  to  all  that  God 
has  entrusted  to  him,  absorbed  in  the  one  work  laid 
upon  him  with  a  self-devotion  that  involves  his  en- 
tire being,  is  the  true  minister.  As  the  iron  in  the 
fire  and  the  fire  in  the  iron  give  white  heat,  so  with 
him  in  the  light  and  the  light  in  him,  men  will 
walk  in  his  light  as  a  man  of  God  fully  furnished. 
Lamps  give  light,  and  the  light  glorifies  the  lamp. 
The  pagan  was  right  who  begged  for  men  of  hot 
hearts  to  tell  of  Jesus'  love ;  for  then  our  words  will 
flow  and  burn  like  molten  lava,  and  our  lips  will  be 
as  if  touched  with  coals  of  fire. 

Conviction  and  consecration,  action  and  discipline, 
are  all  emphasized  by  Paul.  Aggressive  and  con- 
tinuous urgency  must  attest  Timothy's  zeal  in  ser- 
vice. Christian  ministers  should  be  the  best  evi- 
dences of  Christianity,  epistles  read  and  known  of 
all  men,  large-type  Christians,  that  he  who  runs 
may  read.  We  may  never  equal  Timothy ;  but  mak- 
ing the  best  of  ourselves  as  true  witnesses  of  the 
living  Christ  we  may  become  own  brothers  of  Paul 
and  Timothy. 


[58] 


A  COMPLETED  MINISTRY 


We  must  be  true  to  ourselves  for  the  sake  of 
honesty.  As  soon  steal  another's  false  teeth  or  his 
wig  as  his  gestures  or  the  tones  of  his  voice. 
Spurgeon,  Beecher,  Brooks,  and  others  have  been 
unwilling  models  for  many  stuffed  figures  in  our 
pulpits,  but  how  can  the  bond-slaves  of  corruption 
give  liberty  to  men?  Paul  does  not  urge  Timothy 
to  be  original ;  a  reputation  for  originality  is  often 
cheaply  won,  as  we  may  see  in  the  performances 
of  some  ministers  and  some  evangelists.  We  may 
seem  to  make  poor  gold-leaf;  but  if  it  is  the  best 
we  can  make,  and  we  have  beaten  it  out  ourselves, 
it  will  be  of  more  worth  to  the  Lord  and  to  the  peo- 
ple, not  to  say  to  ourselves  also,  than  any  we  can 
steal.  Let  us  be  true  to  ourselves  for  growth;  not 
height,  but  holiness  we  need ;  not  place,  but  the  real 
fire  from  God.  As  examples  to  believers  in  word, 
in  conduct,  in  love,  in  faith,  and  in  purity  we  should 
be  what  we  would  have  others  become,  for  the  work 
of  God  in  a  man  is  the  man. 

Those  honors 
Which  are  without  .  .  .  place,  riches,  favor, 
Prizes  of  accident  as  of  merit, 

come  and  go  with  the  seasons.  ''  He  wrote  much, 
but  said  little  "  no  one  could  affirm  of  Paul.  The 
light  not  born  of  earth  or  sea  shines  through  all 
his  letters,  for  when  the  world  was  lowest  morally 
he  preached  and  practised  highest  ideals  and  truths. 
Few  authors  are  better  known,  and  no  human  has 

[59  1 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


contributed  more  for  the  welfare  of  the  world  than 
he  to  whom  the  thing  to  be  done  became  a  part  of 
his  being  and  it  must  be  done  or  he  could  not  live. 
Timothy's  ministry  is  supernatural ;  called  of  God 
unto  grace  and  authority,  he  credentials  the  gospel 
in  his  own  person  and  work.  Ambassadors  for 
Christ  have  dignity  enough  in  divine  authority,  at 
once  our  warrant  and  our  fitness  for  the  work  and 
our  pledge  of  victory  in  it.  As  well  try  to  educate 
mummies  as  to  train  unregenerate  men  for  Christ's 
ministry. 

He  must  speak 
Who  calls  for  things  that  are  not,  and  they  come. 
The  transformation  of  apostate  man 
From   fool  to  wise,   from   earthly  to   divine 
Is  work  for  him  who  made  him. 

The  theology  of  the  future  will  center  in  the 
leadership  of  Christ  and  the  dominance  of  the  spir- 
itual ;  above  everything  else  it  will  emphasize  the 
supernatural.  Lamps  without  light,  trees  without 
fruit,  fields  without  grass  may  abound,  but  never  a 
ministry  of  power  without  the  Spirit.  Nebuchad- 
rezzar's great  image  sank  down  from  gold  to  clay ; 
so  the  ministry  sinks  from  the  apostolic  practice  to 
that  of  many  pretended  successors.  The  image  had 
the  form  of  a  man,  and  the  good  or  the  evil  of  the 
world  \^  by  or  because  of  a  man.  Truth  crushed 
to  earth  rises  again  when  the  man  arises  whom  God 
has  trusted  to  pick  it  up ;  so  Luther  and  many  others 
glorify   anew   a   spiritual   ministry.     Again   to   the 

[601 


A  COMPLETED  MINISTRY 

great  image;  the  one  mediator  is  the  man  Christ 
Jesus,  to  his  own  generation  but  clay,  a  good  man 
but  of  Nazareth.  Since  then  he  lives  and  grows 
from  clay  to  gold  day  by  day,  he  the  Coming  Man 
and  we  his  ministers,  his  servants  ''  in  Christ," 
grow  with  him.  Called  of  God  as  Moses  was  and 
Paul,  we  must  have  the  message,  not  in  a  book 
which  may  be  a  form  empty  as  a  chrysalis  shell,  but 
in  our  own  souls  as  spirit  and  life.  We  must  know 
it,  love  it,  give  it  fully,  and  above  all  we  must  be 
the  message.  To  us  is  entrusted  the  gospel  of  the 
glory  of  the  happy  God,  and  in  us  is  to  be  witnessed 
its  triumpi.  We  find  his  gospel  in  his  works,  in  his 
words,  but  more  in  himself ;  and  we  his  messengers 
after  works  and  words  must  be  in  person  his  mes- 
sage. It  is  too  easy  to  cry  at  us,  "  Heal  thyself  "; 
if  we  do  not  show  the  power  of  God  to  subdue  sin 
in  our  own  souls,  how  can  we  bring  men  to  trust 
God?  The  best  do  best,  for  being  is  the  measure 
of  doing,  especially  in  the  ministry  of  Christ,  and 
he  serves  best  who  is  most  meek  and  lowly  in 
heart. 

Timothy,  keep  yourself  pure;  only  so  can  you 
bless  an  impure  world,  only  so  can  you  show  your 
life-power  comes  down  from  above,  only  so  can 
you  lift  men  up  to  God.  Gifts  and  graces,  pulpits, 
churches,  and  Bibles  are  instruments  to  this  end, 
that  we  save  ourselves  and  others  also. 

Feed  with  the  word,  but  oh,  far  more 
Feed  with  a  holy  life. 

[61] 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


Our  lives  begin  in  a  miracle,  for  Christ  is  born 
in  us,  and  lead  back  to  the  miracle  of  miracles,  to 
him  who  was  dead  and  is  alive  again.  Unless  he 
lives  in  me  I  have  no  warrant  to  speak  for  him  and 
no  power  to  reveal  him  to  others.  The  clouds  that 
become  the  sun's  chariots  show  the  sun's  glory. 
God  is  not  afraid  of  paradoxes ;  we  alone  truly  live 
who  have  been  crucified  with  Christ,  and  our  *'  life 
under  God  is  now  one  grand  paradox  of  dependence 
and  liberty."  Power  is  in  Christ ;  not  in  something 
he  says  or  does,  but  in  him  is  the  power  of  God  to 
subdue  and  to  save.  "  Christ  is  infinite  spiritual 
energy  in  constant  action."  Three  dominant  say- 
ings, and  all  touching  our  ministry,  are  given  twice 
each ;  the  work  and  its  definite  point — ''  preach  the 
gospel  to  the  poor  " ;  the  work  and  its  supply — 
"  pray  the  Lord  of  the  harvest  for  laborers  " ;  the 
work  and  its  equipment — '*  As  the  Father  sent  me, 
I  send  you,  receive  ye  the  Holy  Spirit."  Hugh 
Miller  is  right,  '*  Ministers  when  real  are  special 
creations  of  the  grace  of  God." 

It  is  a  royal  privilege  to  live  in  such  an  age  as 
this.  An  age  of  doubt?  Bury  it  under  the  victory 
of  faith  that  overcomes  the  world.  An  age  of 
questions?  Welcome,  stimulate,  and  answer  them 
out  of  our  Bible  and  our  own  souls.  Never  fear 
when  we  have  an  open  Bible  between  ourselves  and 
our  questioner.  An  age  of  half-truths?  Let  our 
light  shine  and  give  them  the  truth  as  truth  is  in 
Jesus.    An  age  of  war?    Thank  God,  to  be  a  good 

[621 


A  COMPLETED  MINISTRY 


soldier  of  Jesus  Christ  is  not  an  empty  phrase. 
Keep  down  fears  by  keeping  up  crystalHne  faith 
and  courage.  Timothy,  do  not  think  of  my  chains ; 
they  are  not  worth  thinking  about;  be  brave,  stand 
up  straight,  and  fight  face  forward. 

Hopes  have  precarious  life; 
They  are  blighted,  withered,  snapped  short  off 
In  vigorous  youth,  and  turned  to  rottenness ; 
But  faithfulness  can  feed  on  suffering, 
And  knows  no  disappointment. 

Covet  a  full,  round  ministry,  now  preacher,  now 
teacher,  now  pastor,  now  evangelist,  and  in  all  a 
true  shepherd.  Forego  no  portion  of  your  service. 
Be  as  ready  to  herald  as  to  teach,  to  train  as  to 
evangelize,  and  so  accomplish  your  ministry, 
Timothy.  The  path  of  honor  ascends  from  among 
our  every-day  duties.  Jesus  was  great,  not  in 
science  or  art  or  politics,  but  in  religion,  and  here 
his  greatness  arises  out  of  all-round  service  to  God 
and  humanity.  *'  Never  man  so  spake !  "  True,  and 
this  speaking  was  in  the  ordinary  affairs  faced 
from  day  to  day  and  in  the  main  among  the  com- 
mon people.  We  are  lured  by  the  extraordinary, 
but  the  ordinary  is  the  most  needful;  to  cheer  the 
heart,  to  guide  the  conduct,  to  appreciate  men  and 
share  comradeship  with  them,  is  worth  more  than 
logic  or  fine  writing  or  epigrams  flung  at  them  from 
the  desk.  Much  power  and  great  joy  will  come 
from  doing  well  the  common  duties  of  every  day. 

[63  1 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


Nor  love  thy  life,  nor  hate ;  but  what  thou  livest, 
Live  well,  how  long  or  short  permit  to  heaven. 

He  comes  to  be  ruler  over  many  things  who  is 
faithful  in  that  which  is  least.  We  ministers  have 
the  right  to  account  ourselves  the  most  highly 
honored  of  men,  as  we  ought  to  be  on  earth  or  in 
heaven  the  happiest  of  men.  Greater  honor  than 
the  prime  minister  of  the  proudest  nation  have  we 
as  ambassadors  of  the  King  of  kings.  The  Judaistic 
Jehovah  was  no  match  for  the  Roman  Jupiter;  but 
Jesus  Christ,  the  image  of  the  invisible  God,  is  more 
than  a  match  for  Roman  law  and  power.  It  was 
not  boasting  that  led  Paul  to  say,  "  I  can  do  all 
1:hings  through  Christ  who  strengthens  me." 

All  great  actions  reveal  at  length 
Unguessed  resources  of  lowly  strength. 

We  who  are  **  the  heirs  of  all  the  ages  "  wear 
the  highest  honors  ever  conferred  upon  men  in  that 
we  may  live  and  serve  at  the  apex  of  all  the  oppor- 
tunities and  joys  known  to  humanity.  It  is  greater 
to  preach  Christ  now  than  in  any  age  of  the  world's 
history.  Moral  earnestness  and  real  religion  are 
more  alive  today  than  in  any  day  I  have  ever  known, 
and  I  had  rather  be  a  minister  of  the  gospel  of  God 
than  hold  any  other  position  to  which  I  could  be 
called.* 

1  I    was    ordained    as    pastor    of    the    First    Baptist    Church,    Perth 
Amboy,  N.  J.,  June   12,   1862, 

r64i 


A  COMPLETED  MINISTRY 

Paul  and  Nero;  the  slave  of  Christ  and  the  tool 
of  the  Antichrist ;  the  veteran  with  the  marks  of  his 
Master  like  a  general  who  bares  his  bosom  that 
his  soldiers  may  see  the  scars  of  his  wounds  and 
the  tyrant  who  is  the  crown  and  flower  of  vice  and 
guilt;  the  ambassador  of  Christ  and  the  deified 
autocrat  of  paganism;  he  who  being  poor  made 
many  rich  and  the  incarnate  Nemesis  of  degrada- 
tion, these  two  from  other  realms  look  back  to  earth. 
Upon  that  mighty  kingdom  whose  throne  Nero  dis- 
honored the  sun  has  set  forever;  but  the  Sun  of 
Righteousness  arises  forever  upon  Paul's  poor 
saints  whom  he  led  into  the  kingdom  and  patience 
of  Jesus.  Not  even  David  can  bless  God  for  his 
throne  and  kingdom  as  a  minister  from  his  pulpit 
and  pastorate  may  cry  out,  *'  I  am  thankful  to  Him 
who  made  me  strong — even  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord — 
because  He  has  judged  me  to  be  faithful,  and  has 
put  me  into  his  service." 


65] 


IV 


DIVINE  METHODS  IN  HUMAN 
REDEMPTION 


DIVINE  METHODS  IN  HUMAN 
REDEMPTION' 


As  one  who  gazed  on  the  Invisible  God,  he  (Moses)  was 
unflinching.  These,  all  these,  were  they  who  through  that 
faith  received  tokens  of  God's  approval,  yet  these  did  not 
actually  receive  the  fulfilment  of  God's  promise.  Why  so? 
Because  God,  with  respect  to  us,  looked  onward  to  a  higher 
blessing  than  was  here  attained  by  them,  so  that  they 
might  not  reach  that  perfect  state  ere  we  could  join  them, — 
(Translation  by  Arthur  S.  Way.) 

TO  see  God  in  the  past  but  fail  to  see  him  today 
is  the  worst  heresy.  That  "  God  has  a  plan, 
and  that  history  is  the  working  out  of  his  plan  in 
human  affairs  "  Hebrews,  not  Hegel,  first  affirms. 

To  "  open  as  an  essay,  move  as  a  sermon,  close 
as  a  letter,"  and  maintain  high  literary  excellence 
shows  the  master-hand  of  a  religious  genius.  A 
prose  poem  aglow  with  ideals,  rich  in  gems  as  a 
diamond  pocket,  transparent  in  theme  and  course  of 
thought,  its  treasures  enhance  its  timeliness. 

Days  when  Scriptures  and  symbols  are  as  an 
empty  chrysalis,  mildew  stains  the  purest  rites, 
Moses  decreases,  Jesus  increases,  their  granary  be- 
come   a    grave,    are    dark    days    for    God's    elect. 

1  Given  at  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  Long  Island  Baptist 
Association,  in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  October  17,  1916.  The  writer,  a 
constituent  member,  is  the  only  living  incorporator. 


69] 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


Christianity  sweeps  the  lands  "  hke  a  prairie  fire," 
but  Jews  follow  their  nation's  bier  as  mourners 
without  hope,  and  Christian  Jews,  seeing  the  foun- 
dations sink  under  their  feet,  are  in  a  strait  whether 
to  rush  back  to  what  is  falling  or  to  clutch  at  the 
hope  set  before  them. 

Hebrews  traces  the  olive  tree  from  root  to  fruit, 
gives  triumph  for  defeat,  and  leads  them  to  the  city 
that  has  foundations.  Like  sweet  waters  in  a  bitter 
sea  this  reopens  a  fountain  for  the  house  of  David, 
and  the  sinless  Captain  of  Salvation,  Pioneer  and 
Perfector  of  faith,  lifts  them  out  of  the  fear  of 
death  into  the  life  of  love  and  service.  Christianity 
fits  the  old  Mosaism  as  the  nick  of  an  arrow  fits 
the  string  of  a  bow,  the  second  covenant  unlocks  the 
first,  and  the  cross  illumines  their  Scriptures  and 
symbols.  Israel's  diadem  crowns  him  who  gives 
them  more  than  the  holiest  found  in  the  temple 
and  does  what  Judaism  could  not  do,  "  makes 
perfect.'" 

It  is  a  bold  challenge  for  an  unknown  author  to 
wreathe  the  giants  of  Israel  with  new  laurels,  build 
a  hall  of  fame  for  heroes  rich  toward  God,  and  then 
deny  them  perfectness  without  hiinself  and  his  asso- 
ciates. No  second-hand  scribe  is  he,  but  a  true  seer; 
no  clock  set  by  other  clocks,  but  a  sunlit  dial.  To 
him  Christ  is  ''  The  Apostle  of  God,"  from  whom 
by  vertical,  not  horizontal,  lines  is  a  true  apostolic 
succession  in  the  priesthood  of  believers.  As  sol- 
diers capture  a  battery  and  turn  its  guns  on  their 


70] 


DIVINE  METHODS 


foes,  so  he  turns  arguments  against  Jesus  into 
proofs  of  his  greatness.  He  visions  '*  the  far-off 
divine  event." 

'Twas  but  a  step  from  out  our  muddy  street 
Of  earth,  on  to  the  pavement  all  of  pearl. 

Yet  he  treats  rehgion  as  a  present  need,  not  as  a 
heavenly  thing. 

At  home  in  history,  rich  in  imagination,  alert  in 
logic,  full  of  sympathy,  and  thinking  in  terms  of 
humanity,  he  flings  forth  ideals  and  truths  as  big  as 
the  mind  can  grapple.  We  claim  to  think  in  world 
terms,  but  his  world  spans  time  and  space,  weaves 
into  its  tapestry  all  generations,  leaps  from  the  first 
earthly  home  to  the  eternal  home  of  the  household 
of  God,  and  crams  the  entire  survey  into  a  sentence. 
Thought  sags  under  low  ideals,  but  ideals  whose 
kernel  is  love  to  God  and  man  lift  thought  to  the 
nth  degree,  and  truth  not  posited  on  time  or  place 
saves  itself  and  its  torch-bearer. 

He  emphasizes  unity  and  perfectness  for  the  re- 
deemed, unity  in  constituency  and  service,  its  bond 
an  organizing  life.  Abel,  Enoch,  and  Noah  in  re- 
mote days;  Abram,  Moses,  and  David  in  early  Is- 
rael ;  Peter,  John,  and  Paul  in  later  days,  are  bound 
into  one  bundle  of  life  with  God. 

It  is  a  zigzag  hero  line,  and  Baptist  councils 
would  not  approve  them  all;  yet  as  in  the  hilltop 
conference  Moses  and  Elijah,  Peter,  James,  and 
John,   with  Jesus   in   the   midst,   are  one,   so   this 

[71] 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


richest  cluster  of  God's  jewels  ever  strung  is  in  one 
chain.  Pilgrim  fathers  on  highlands  of  divine  com- 
panionship, and  multitudes  yet  to  begin  their  pil- 
grimage, '*  the  host  above,  below,"  vanguard  and 
rearward,  sowers  and  reapers,  parents  and  children, 
in  one  comradeship  move  along  the  upward  way. 

On  they  move 
Indissolubly  firm;  nor  straitening  vale,  nor  wood  divides 
Their  perfect  ranks. 

All  wait  until  David  the  shepherd  lad  comes  into 
the  house ;  so  will  all  wait  until  the  last  lost  sheep 
is  brought  back  to  the  household  of  God.  Abel 
and  Paul,  Noah  and  John  differ  greatly  as  do  lamb 
and  tiger,  dove  and  elephant,  but  God  is  justified  of 
his  children.  There  is  no  room  for  doubt  that  the 
ideals  of  one  bread,  one  body,  one  fold,  and  one 
bride  are  real  entities.  Come  down,  and  we  will 
believe,"  his  foes  shouted ;  he  did  more ;  he  came  up 
from  the  grave.  *'  Go  tell  my  disciples  and  Peter  " 
knits  them  into  oneness.  Man,  the  pearl  of  great 
price,  drew  him  down,  for  God  sees  more  in  us 
than  we  see  in  ourselves,  and  he  is  satisfied  when 
man  is  made  new  in  the  perfect  image  and  likeness 
of  the  Father.  Is  everything  going  to  smash,  is  the 
mystery  of  life  to  end  in  "  the  ashes  of  moral  de- 
feat "  ?  Look  higher  to  see  how  God  uses  the 
world's  waste  as  raw  material  for  sonship, 

to  angel  his  new  heaven 
Explores  the  lowest  hell. 


[72 


DIVINE  METHODS 


"  Bezaleel,  the  brazier,  may  have  been  rated  above 
Aaron  the  priest,"  Bushnell  says,  adding,  "  and  I 
really  think  he  was."  Who  ever  came  nearer  being 
rated  with  Shakespeare  than  Bunyan,  the  tinker? 

"  The  religious  phenomena  of  life  transcend  all 
human  science,"  for  finites,  fired  by  immutable  ideas 
and  truths,  feed  on  the  infinite  and  love  mortal 
things  with  the  zest  of  natures  immortal.  ''  Look- 
ing before  and  after  " — knowledge  and  faith  to  him, 
thoroughfares,  not  blind  alleys — wise  in  appraising 
the  near  and  sane  in  weighing  the  remote,  he  en- 
riches the  old  by  the  new,  and  knows  both  so  well  he 
dares  forecast  the  future.  A  prophet  artist,  his 
sketch,  both  ample  and  sublime,  opens  a  rift  in  the 
cloud  and  lo !  their  glory  streams  through  who  with 
shackled  hands  salute  the  promises.     Who  feared 

not  the  hungry  fire, 
With  its  caverns  of  burning  light, 

now  shine  without  spot  or  wrinkle.  They  wore 
their  pains  like  roses  as  they  went  up  to  God. 
"  God's  own  have  the  perfectness  which  he  en- 
gages to  secure,  for  God  no  more  makes  half  a 
promise  than  tailors  make  half  a  pair  of  trousers. 
Those  of  whom  the  world  was  not  worthy  are 

Like  wild  myrtles,  which  preserve 

Their  hoard  of  perfumes  for  the  dying  hour 

When  rudeness  crushes  them. 

The  Lord's  trees,  the  big  sequoias  set  between  the 
shoulders  of  the  mountains,  wrestle  with  storm  and 

[73  1 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


tempest,  defy  cold  and  heat,  sink  their  roots  deep 
into  the  fastnesses  of  the  rocks,  and  grow  hardy  by 
every  conflict.  So  God  builds  great  souls.  Hazards 
and  perils,  denials  and  betrayals,  bitter  persecutions, 
fire  and  sword  are  his  tools  to  carve  beauty  and 
strength  of  character.  When  mummies  clamor  for 
new  clothes,  Vanity  Fair  bargain-counters  may  sell 
ready-made  character.  ''  Let  him  slay  me  if  he 
do  but  reign  " — a  proud  mother's  word  is  chaff  be- 
side God's  word,  ''  Though  he  slay  me  yet  will  I 
trust  in  him."  Satan  still  sifts  wheat  and  beats  out 
harvests  of  golden  grain  for  the  barn  floor  of  the 
Lord.  Bonds  out  of  Christ  bitter  as  gall  are  bitter- 
sweet in  Christ,  for  sufferings  may  be  ''  the  scab- 
bards of  the  sword  of  the  Spirit."  To  suffer  with 
him  is  to  reign  with  him  who  is  made  perfect 
through  suffering.  A  saint  is  a  soldier,  not  a  paste- 
board man  in  a  painted  world.  God  burns  in  his 
hall-mark,  and  the  many  sons  brought  to  glory 
bear  the  owner's  brand. 

Completeness  is  in  Christ;  the  Father's  perfect 
Son  is  humanity's  perfect  man.  Smoothness  and 
beauty  in  the  sea  of  glass  prove  it  is  mingled 
with  fire.  Who  walk  with  Christ  on  that  sea  are 
white  like  crystal,  for  they  washed  their  robes  and 
made  them  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb.  In  the 
transfiguration,  glory  shone  through  his  garments, 
and  so  they,  all  pure  within,  must  wear  white. 
Resistless  as  the  river  in  the  ocean  God's  purposes 
sweep  us  on  to  our  desired  haven  in  Christ. 

[741 


DIVINE  METHODS 


God's  goodness  flows  around  our  incompleteness, 
Round  our  restlessness  his  rest. 

God  provides  the  better  things  for  us,  working 
out  his  own  good  pleasure  by  life  and  death,  men 
and  nations,  races  and  ages,  the  past  and  the  un- 
trodden future,  ahke  too  holy  to  do  wrong  and 
too  mighty  to  lean  on  helpers.  He  moves  on  circles 
so  great  it  takes  many  centuries  filled  with  the 
countless  deeds  of  countless  men  to  finish  any  de- 
sign of  his.  He  "  notches  the  nations'  calendars," 
yokes  up  the  pagan  powers  as  hewers  of  wood  and 
drawers  of  water  for  his  kingdom,  times  all  events 
to  honor  Christ,  and  skips  no  least  detail  of  life  in 
nature  or  in  man.  Lily's  growth  and  sparrow's  fall, 
Abram,  his  altar-building  and  his  servant's  dress, 
Egypt  and  the  bulrush  boat  for  the  boy,  Jeremiah, 
also  the  rags  for  his  arms  when  drawn  out  of  the 
pit,  concern  God  who  gleans  field  corners,  gathers 
fragments,  and  makes  all  things  work  together  for 
good.  No  man  or  event  is  viewed  apart  from  the 
whole  plan  of  God. 

Cargoes  of  circumstances  and  freight-trains  of 
mud  invoiced  "  Progress,"  blind  captains  using 
knowledge  to  deceive  and  religion  to  destroy,  whole 
armies  and  great  nations,  have  tumbled  into  the 
gulf  of  oblivion.  A  few  Pharaohs  and  Neros  with 
"  mouth  of  iron  and  heart  of  lead,  wielding  a  king's 
power  with  a  slave's  spirit,"  history  gibbets  to  show 
that  bad  men  are  not  the   fruit  of  modern  days. 

[75] 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


If  Stephen  dies,  fear  not;  Paul  girt  with  more  than 
a  double  portion  of  his  spirit  rises  to  carry  the  cross 
onward.  If  Judas  walks  free  "  with  the  silver  in 
his  hands,"  fear  not,  "  God  holds  the  reins  over  the 
devil's  coursers."  We  also,  more  than  conquerors, 
are  to  see  enemies  fall  as  lightning  till  '*  as  a  god 
self-slain  on  his  own  strange  altar,  Death  lies  dead." 

When  their  sufferings  were  as  if  hell's  geysers 
leaped  up  to  meet  the  overturned  vials  of  heaven's 
wrath,  into  the  furnace  fire  as  into  molten  wax  God 
set  a  new  seal  of  Messiahship,  whose  enemies  should 
become  the  footstool  of  his  feet,  and  transformed 
the  tongues  of  flame  into  pentecostal  tongues  for 
the  spread  of  his  gospel  through  the  Roman  Empire. 
The  quaking  mountain  at  whose  foot  Moses  and 
his  people  trembled,  would  become  a  mere  incident 
in  contrast  with  the  rocking  to  and  fro  of  earth 
and  heaven  for  the  bringing  in  of  the  kingdom 
which  could  not  be  shaken,  and  in  the  height  of  the 
storm  the  author  of  Hebrews  sings  a  song  of  triumph 
unto  the  Christ  of  God,  '*  the  same  yesterday,  today, 
and  forever."  In  the  heart  of  a  cyclone  it  is  said 
there  is  a  perfect  calm;  so  when  the  storm  sweeps 
over  us  and  the  deck  dips  and  rises  as  if  it  would 
shake  itself  free  and  cast  us  into  the  deep,  the  mind 
is  calm,  knowing  that  the  chief  things  cannot  be 
moved,  and  to  these  we  cling  till  the  tempest  has 
spent  its  fury  and  passed  us  by. 

The  ideal,  the  lodestone  of  the  heart,  becomes  the 
actual  joy  of  the  life,  hope  anchor's  within  the  veil. 


76 


DIVINE  METHODS 


and  faith  claims  the  future  as  the  experience  of  the 
present.  While  in  the  body  pent  we  who  believe 
do  enter  into  rest,  come  to  the  New  Jerusalem,  and 
to  the  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect.  Gustavus 
Adolphus,  leading  the  German  Protestants,  saying, 
"  Henceforth  there  remains  no  rest  for  me  save  that 
which  is  eternal,"  enters  into  the  rest  of  God.  "  All 
the  world's  masters  feel  the  tug  of  the  future  and 
greet  the  unseen  with  a  cheer." 

History,  experience,  and  reason  are  warp  and 
woof  for  the  author,  who,  with  clear  brain  and 
warm  heart  weaves  his  great  design.  He  shows  the 
hidden  springs  of  power  that  moved  the  giants  of 
old,  exalts  the  obedience  and  victory  of  their  faith, 
clothes  a  great  literature  in  the  thought  of  his  time, 
paints  the  nation's  progress  in  true  perspective,  re- 
veals the  new  life  Christ  has  given,  and  converts  the 
whole  into  meat  and  drink  for  the  men  of  his  day 
while  before  and  behind  at  the  center  and  on  every 
side  is  "  the  living  God,"  as  he  fondly  calls  him. 

From  shore  sand  to  star-dust,  from  atoms  to 
angels,  the  universe  is  ablaze  with  God.  "  The  more 
the  heart  is  crowded  with  God's  presence,  the 
greater  room  there  is  for  more  of  his  presence  and 
for  all  the  things  in  which  God  is  concerned."  To 
change  a  hero's  word  who  gave  his  life  for  his  peo- 
ple, w^e  cry :  **  Make  room  for  God !  Make  room  for 
God  !  "  Som.e  words  are  overworked."  **  Problem  " 
is  such  a  word.  The  one  world's  problem,  our 
greatest  need,  is  to  know  God;  it  is  life  eternal  to 


[77] 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


know  God  and  Jesus  Christ.  What  God  is  and 
what  man  should  be  is  the  sum  of  revelation.  But 
how  may  God  be  known?  " 

We  know  each  other  through  mutual  self -revela- 
tion and  mutual  self-surrender  and  mutual  coopera- 
tion in  the  highest  things.  Luther's  wedding-ring 
may  illustrate  the  three ;  it  was  engraved :  *'  Martin- 
Katherine.  Each  for  the  other.  Both  for  God." 
Turn  back  the  pages  to  the  law  of  the  altar-fire,  **  It 
shall  not  go  out,"  and  every  synagogue  witnesses 
that  he  who  gave  the  order  lives  today.  Shall  God 
be  less  alive  to  us  ?  In  that  fire  as  in  the  fire  of  the 
bush  that  saved  Moses  are  first  the  natural  con- 
stituents, light,  heat,  and  motion;  then  the  spiritual 
elements,  for  light,  heat,  and  motion  spell  Vision, 
Passion,  and  Action. 

What  hinders  us  from  knowing  God  ?  Ignorance 
and  sin.  But  to  remove  these  Christ  is  the  Light  of 
the  world  and  the  Lamb  of  God.  The  vision  of  the 
unseen  bears  fruit  in  truest  lives  and  purest  deeds, 
but  every  man  must  see  the  invisible  for  himself. 
Shall  Moses  defy  the  king  whom  he  sees  for  the 
King  whom  he  cannot  see,  and  God  be  less  alive 
to  us? 

Not  more  light  we  ask,  O  God, 
But  eyes  to  see  what  is. 

Unseen  forces  the  mightiest  known  we  have  the 
fatal  power  to  hinder.  Countless  waves  of  light 
bathe  the  eyes,  but  the  optic  nerve  limits  what  we 


[7% 


DIVINE  METHODS 


use;  so  we  limit  God's  impact  on  the  soul.  We 
need  to  cry :  '*  Open  thou  mine  eyes ;  let  me  behold 
thy  wondrous  works." 

The  vision's  intenseness  imperils  its  fulness  and 
tempts  us  to  shrink  its  volume  into  "  the  thimble  of 
our  capacity."  A  view  of  God  brings  larger  views 
of  truth  and  warmer  love  for  truth,  more  desire 
to  know,  and  more  courage  to  do,  his  will.  Connect 
the  richer  views  of  life  with  the  larger  views  of 
God,  or  you  pay  the  cost  of  unreality  in  religion  and 
of  death-damp  in  society.  In  a  Hoffman  painting 
Christ  has  the  upward  look  with  the  downward 
reach ;  having  these  with  shining  faces,  warm  hearts, 
and  strong  arms,  we  could  meet  and  move  men. 

Men  who  assert  that  the  church  is  passe  have  not 
seen  God.  As  another  says,  "  When  the  blue  fades 
out  of  the  sky,  the  mountains  drink  up  the  sea,  the 
heat  of  the  sun  freezes  in,  and  God's  purposing  will 
breaks  down,"  then  may  the  church  go  down  and 
out.  Yet  to  look  around  us  we  may  well  ask,  "  Do 
our  cities  need  an  altar  '  To  an  unknown  God  '  ?  " 
Men  who  know  God  would  not  spend  a  Sunday 
morning  stealing  and  destroying  milk  being  sent  for 
the  needs  of  a  great  city.  Shall  not  the  God  of 
Nineveh  hear  the  cry  of  the  children  robbed  of 
their  food?  Men  who  know  God  will  not  give  up 
their  work  and  then  kill  men  who  are  willing  to 
work.  When  men  to  whom  we  trust  our  lives  in 
the  cars  must  work  behind  iron  bars  to  fend  off 
death,  we  may  well  ask,  "  Have  the  Goths  and  the 

[791 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


Vandals  come  to  destroy  our  civilization  ? "  A 
welter  of  blood  across  the  sea  and  here  a  holocaust 
of  crime  and  death  startling  this  generation  seem 
to  show  that  God  is  unknown. 

Vision  first ;  then  Passion.  God  loves  and  hates  ; 
until  we  know  him  as  a  consuming  fire  we  do  not 
know  him  at  all.  Back  of  life,  as  back  of  war, 
passions  burn  or  principles  shine,  and  what  is  may 
bring  to  pass  what  ought  to  be. 

Law  and  goodness,  love  and  force, 
Are  wedded  fast  beyond  divorce. 

Science  and  art,  education  and  philosophy,  com- 
merce and  industry,  law  and  politics,  national  or  in- 
ternational, are  allies  of  God's  kingdom,  and  they 
will  shine  when  touched  with  religious  passion  as 
the  sun-flushed  clouds  of  the  western  sky.  "  The 
great  ideals  are  Christian  ideals,  and  the  greatest 
scientific  study  of  the  world  is  within  the  rim  of 
the  religious  life." 

Lowell  said,  "  There  is  enough  dynamite  in  the 
New  Testament  to  blow  all  our  institutions  into 
instruments  of  the  kingdom  of  God  if  rightly  ap- 
plied." True,  and  the  answer  is  that  the  gospel  of 
God  has  "  power  enough  to  transform  our  institu- 
tions into  instruments  of  the  kingdom  of  God  if 
rightly  applied."  Contact  is  as  necessary  to  the  car 
as  the  power-house,  and  truth  to  have  its  full  force 
must  be  incarnate  in  life.  We  sorely  need  deep  moral 
energy  and  conviction ;  correcting  the  fathers*  faults 

1801 


DIVINE  METHODS 


at  the  cost  of  losing  their  virtues  is  a  poor  exchange. 
Splendidly  organized,  we  need  the  dynamic  of  pas- 
sion for  Christ  and  man  to  achieve  our  tasks. 
Qothe  concepts  of  God  in  terms  of  the  present,  and 
translate  the  love  of  Christ  into  the  love  of  the  race 
to  serve  the  men  of  today,  for  spiritual  truth  un- 
responsive to  its  age  stings  itself  to  death.  When 
our  hearts  burn  within  us  as  he  talks  with  us  by 
the  way,  our  blood  earnestness  will  win  men.  It 
will  do  us  good  to  take  ship  with  Paul  and  hear  him 
cry  out  in  the  night,  "  I  believe  God,  and  it  shall  be 
as  he  hath  said." 

Beside  Raphael's  "  Transfiguration  "  paint  '*  The 
Next  Hour,"  when  Christ  at  the  foot  of  the  moun- 
tain makes  whole  the  demented  boy.  We  may  be 
too  busy  to  pray,  and  too  selfish  to  sacrifice  for  the 
unsaved,  so  busy  trying  to  understand  God  that  we 
neglect  to  love  and  serve  him. 

Shall  the  Hebrew  singer  who  chanted,  "  The 
Lord  will  perfect  that  which  concerneth  me,"  have 
God  nearer  than  you  and  I?  Shall  he  who  sang, 
"  Lord,  thou  hast  been  our  dwelling-place  in  all 
generations,"  have  vision  and  passion  to  find  in 
God  a  home  that  you  and  I  do  not  share?  Vision 
and  passion  decaying,  mind  and  heart  are  starved, 
then  lost,  and  only  an  empty  form  is  left.  Said 
one,  "  My  mother's  living  presence  nerves  me  every 
day."  Many  of  us  who  respond  to  that  should  say 
with  deeper  passion,  "  The  reality  of  God's  presence 
girds  me  every  hour." 

[81] 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


Earth's  crammed  with  heaven, 
And  every  common  bush  aflame  with  God ; 
But  only  he  who  sees  takes  off  his  shoes ; 
The  rest  sit  round  it,  and  pick  blackberries. 

Are  we  berry-pickers  or  God's  seers?  The  man 
"  without  passion  for  God  not  worth  his  weight  in 
dust  "  may  be  worth  his  weight  in  gold  if  God  truly 
abides  in  him.  Passion  for  righteousness,  truth, 
and  law  are  not  by-products  of  faith. 

Fine  gold  has  not  perished  when  the  flame 
Seizes  upon  it  with  consuming  glow. 

Vision  soon  grows  into  vocation,  and  passion  into 
Pozver.  It  takes  a  Paul  to  triumph  over  a  thorn 
in  the  flesh  and  to  withstand  Peter  to  his  face. 
God  does  not  give  blue-prints  for  the  house  we  build 
on  the  rock  or  logarithms  to  check  up  each  day  of 
life's  journey;  it  is  enough  to  say,  **  Lo,  I  am  with 
you  all  the  days." 

Who  walks  with  God  shuns  the  lines  of  least  re- 
sistance, makes  straight  paths  that  the  lame  be  not 
turned  out  of  the  way,  cHmbs  hills  of  difficulty, 
fights  against  every  wrong  and  esteems  the  rebuke 
of  God  greater  riches  than  the  praises  of  friends. 
Who  walks  with  God  puts  his  purse-strings  into  the 
hands  of  his  great  Comrade,  covets  the  hardest 
fields  in  which  to  work,  and  loiters  not  when  he 
should  labor,  for  spiritual  indulgences  may  work 
more  harm  than  those  which  Luther  fought.    Who 

[82] 


DIVINE  METHODS 


walks  with  God  in  going  about  doing  good  will 
tread  out  with  his  feet  all  lines  of  separation,  sec- 
tional, national,  or  racial,  yet  will  be  patient  with 
others^  remembering  that  while  it  took  only  forty 
hours  to  get  Israel  out  of  Egypt,  it  took  more  than 
forty  years  to  get  Egypt  out  of  Israel. 

Walking  with  God  today  must  be  under  the  con- 
ditions of  life  today;  in  the  thick  of  affairs,  amid 
the  crowding  and  the  cursing,  through  all  the  racket 
and  the  noise  we  may  hear  his  voice  and  walk  with 
him  undisturbed  if  we  will.  Follow  as  did  Caleb, 
believe  as  did  Paul,  endure  as  did  Moses,  and  then 
in  every  church  action  and  in  every  act  of  the  asso- 
ciation, without  presuming  we  also  may  say,  "  It 
seemed  good  to  us  and  to  the  Holy  Spirit." 

To  sing  psalms  is  good,  to  open  playgrounds  for 
the  children  may  be  better  and  a  more  immediate 
duty.  Is  God  '*  covered  with  a  cloud  "  so  that  your 
prayers  cannot  pass  through?  The  cloud  is  born 
of  the  marshes  at  your  feet;  get  out  and  clean  up 
the  marshes,  and  your  prayers  will  get  up  to  God. 
To  prove  that  God  lives  in  our  religion  today  right- 
eousness, love,  and  service  must  thrive  in  Wall 
Street  and  in  every  street.  If  we  cannot  show  God 
at  work  in  New  York,  volumes  of  proof  that  he  was 
in  Jerusalem  will  fail  to  create  response.  How  God 
came  to  Abram  means  little  if  God  does  not  come  to 
us  so  that  we  can  give  him  to  the  people  whom  we 
serve.  If  God  speaks  to  us  from  some  distant  age 
only,  we  are  done  for. 


83 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


Granted  that  God  is  in  our  churches,  some  of  us, 
like  Jacob,  seem  not  to  know  it  until  the  meeting  is 
over.  To  reach  men  God  must  be  seen  in  our 
streets  and  shops.  Jews  kept  windows  open  toward 
Jerusalem,  and  we  must  keep  our  windows  open 
toward  Brooklyn. 

Judaism  clinging  to  its  great  men  seems  foolish, 
but  what  if  we  cling  to  the  founders  of  this  Asso- 
ciation, or  of  the  churches  in  which  we  work, 
cling  to  their  truths  and  ways  ?  How  are  we  better 
than  the  Jews  ?  It  is  *'  love's  labor  lost  "  to  put 
twentieth-century  wine  into  first-century  bottles. 
Hezekiah  breaks  Moses'  serpent,  Paul  changes 
Moses'  statutes,  and  we  must  welcome  new  truths. 

The  boom  evangelists  have  now  may  become  a 
bomb  and  gusts  of  feeling  blow  out  lamps  of  reason. 
Pastors  silent  and  churches  closed  for  weeks  to 
hear  one  man  speak  and  have  one  big  meeting! 
What  about  the  promise  to  two  or  three  "  with 
Jesus  in  the  midst "  ?  Bring  God  to  men,  lift  men 
to  God,  is  every  man's  commission.  Absorbed  in 
the  wheel's  whirl  at  the  circumference  we  may 
lose  sight  of  the  center. 

Efficiency  is  our  great  word.  Jesus  says,  **  My 
Father  works,  and  I  work."  What  captain  of  in- 
dustry puts  in  more  hours  a  day  than  the  Captain 
of  our  salvation  ?  Write  "  holiness  on  the  bells  of 
the  horses  "  and  follow  the  mechanic  who  lived  as 
"  The  Apostle  of  God !  "  Who  now  so  walks  and 
lives  says,  "  For  me  to  live  is  Christ  to  Hve." 


84 


DIVINE  METHODS 


Modem  ideals  are  here:  the  law  of  continuity — 
the  universe  not  a  chaos,  but  a  cosmos  founded  in 
reason  and  truth,  and  "  a  survival  of  the  individual 
personality  after  death  in  a  form  which  makes 
possible  the  continuity  of  the  connecting  life." 
Edison,  Marconi  could  not  stay  the  mighty  forces 
God  set  free.  When  traitors  try  to  shift  the  chan- 
nels of  the  river  of  life, 

Have  faith  in  God, 

Calm  and  free  from  every  care, 

On  any  shore  since  God  is  there. 

Life,  thought,  truth,  and  ideals,  God's  gifts,  abide 
amid  all  earth's  changes.  Men  live  and  die,  nations 
rise  and  fall,  but  "  the  one  eternal  purpose  behind 
all  history  will  move  resistless  as  the  flow  of  the 
tides,  for  the  ultimate  character  of  God  as  of  the 
universe  is  to  be  judged  by  its  final  product." 

Who  yields  himself  to  God  builds  on  an  abiding 
foundation.  Perish  our  things  if  deeds  of  service 
for  Christ  live.  "  The  floweret  may  die,  but  the 
fruit  scents  the  plain." 

Honor  the  things  that  were,  honor  more  things 
that  are,  but  highest  honor  to  things  that  are  to  be. 
I  believe  that  generations  coming  will  surpass  all 
gone  before,  and  coming  songs  will  reach  triumph- 
ing notes  man  has  never  yet  touched.  Perfect  your 
instruments  and  your  singers,  for  future  music  will 
exceed  our  best.  Each  period  must  praise  His  work 
to  the  next  in  loftier  scale  of  power. 

[  85  1 


THE  RELIGION  OF  JESUS 


I  look  for  more  devotion,  more  revivals  of  pure 
religion,  greater  beneficence,  and  larger  revealings 
of  God.  Blessed  are  you  younger  brethren  who 
will  see  and  share  in  such  abundant  life,  from  our 
Father.  Where  victory  perches  today  means  little; 
where  the  exhaustless  riches  are  means  everything. 
Vast  the  difference — having  God  on  our  side  for  a 
day  and  being  on  his  side  for  time  and  eternity.  To 
see  darkly  now,  then  to  see  him,  is  as  a  step  from 
quest  and  glory.     Some  day 

We  shall  behold  Thee,  face  to  face, 

0  God,  and  in  thy  light  retrace 

How  in  all  we  loved  here,  still  wast  thou. 

I  believe  that  the  world,  ever  in  his  hands,  is  in 
his  keeping  now,  that  God  who  was  with  the  men 
of  old,  is  with  us  now,  that  he  who  spoke  to  them 
of  his  will  and  work,  is  speaking  to  us  now,  and 
that  as  he  gave  to  them,  so  today  he  is  giving  to 
us  many  discoveries  of  his  truth. 

Here  let  us  pause,  our  quest  forego. 
Enough  for  us  to  feel  and  know 
That  He  in  whom  the  cause  and  end. 
The  past  and  future  meet  and  blend. 
Speaks  not  alone  of  words  of  fate 
Which  worlds  destroy  and  worlds  create ; 
But  whispers  in  my  spirit's  ear 
In  tones  of  love  or  warning  fear, 
A  language  none  beside  may  hear. 
To  Him  from  wanderings  long  and  wild 

1  come,  an  overwearied  child. 


[86 


Theological   Semmary-Speer 


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